Spectre and Meltdown explained: What they are, how they work, what’s at risk

In the first days of 2018, published research revealed that nearly every computer chip manufactured in the last 20 years contains fundamental security flaws, with specific variations on those flaws being dubbed Spectre and Meltdown. The flaws arise from features built into chips that help them run faster, and while software patches are available, they may have impacts on system performance. There is as of yet no evidence that these flaws have been exploited in the wild, but such exploits would be difficult to detect, and the flaws are so fundamental and widespread that security researchers are calling them catastrophic.

What are Spectre and Meltdown?

Spectre and Meltdown are the names given to different variants of the same fundamental underlying vulnerability that affects nearly every computer chip manufactured in the last 20 years and could, if exploited, allow attackers to get access to data previously considered completely protected. Security researchers discovered the flaws late in 2017 and publicized them in early 2018. Technically, there are three variations on the vulnerability, each given its own CVE number; two of those variants are grouped together as Spectre and the third is dubbed Meltdown.

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