Malware Exploiting Spectre, Meltdown Flaws Emerges
Researchers have discovered more than 130 malware samples designed to exploit the recently disclosed Spectre and Meltdown CPU vulnerabilities. While a majority of the samples appear to be in the testing phase, we could soon start seeing attacks.
The Meltdown and Spectre attack methods allow malicious applications to bypass memory isolation mechanisms and access passwords, photos, documents, emails, and other sensitive data. Shortly after Spectre and Meltdown were disclosed on January 3, experts warned that we could soon see remote attacks, especially since a JavaScript-based proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit for Spectre had been made available.
On January 17, antivirus testing firm AV-TEST reported that it had seen 77 malware samples apparently related to the CPU vulnerabilities, and the number had increased to 119 by January 23.
