Summary The severe design flaw in Intel microprocessors that allows sensitive data, such as passwords and crypto-keys, to be stolen from memory is real – and its details have been revealed.
On Tuesday, we warned that a blueprint blunder in Intel's CPUs could allow applications, malware, and JavaScript running in web browsers, to obtain information they should not be allowed to access: the contents of the operating system kernel's private memory areas. These zones often contain files cached from disk, a view onto the machine's entire physical memory, and other secrets. This should be invisible to normal programs.
Escape the Ayuwoki is an adventure game that offers simple yet heart-racing gameplay. The story of the game revolves around the player being kidnapped and locked up in a creepy old mansion. The objective of the game is to find a red key hidden somewhere in the house and use it on the main gate to escape. Tales of Terror: Estate of the Heart Strategy Guide for iPad, iPhone, Android, Mac & PC! Get tips and hints from our handy Strategy Guide! Follow our crystal clear instructions and helpful tricks to succeed!! Else Heart.Break is a reimagination of the adventure game – a fantastic story set in a fully dynamic and interactive world. Instead of rigid puzzles you will learn (with the help from other characters in the game) how the reality of the game can be changed through programming and how any problem can be solved in whatever way you find suitable. Twelve, going on fourteen. At the heart of every iPad is one of the company’s A-series processors, typically a modified version of the latest-and-greatest with beefed-up graphics performance. Clive Barker's Undying is a horror first-person shooter video game developed by EA Los Angeles and published by EA Games.The game was produced by acclaimed horror writer Clive Barker.
Thanks to Intel's cockup – now codenamed Meltdown – that data is potentially accessible, meaning bad websites and malware can attempt to rifle through the computer's memory looking for credentials, RNG seeds, personal information, and more.
Here's a video demonstrating a Meltdown attack:
Using #Meltdown to steal passwords in real time #intelbug#kaiser#kpti /cc @mlqxyz@lavados@StefanMangard@yuvalyaromhttps://t.co/gX4CxfL1Axpic.twitter.com/JbEvQSQraP
— Michael Schwarz (@misc0110) January 4, 2018On a shared system, such as a public cloud server, it is possible, depending on the configuration, for software in a guest virtual machine to drill down into the host machine's physical memory and steal data from other customers' virtual machines. See below for details on Xen and VMware hypervisor updates.
Intel is not the only one affected. Arm and AMD processors are as well – to varying degrees. AMD insisted there is a 'near-zero' risk its chips can be attacked in some scenarios, but its CPUs are vulnerable in others. The chip designer has put up a basic page that attempts to play down the impact of the bugs on its hardware.
Arm has produced a list of its affected cores, which are typically found in smartphones, tablets and similar handheld gadgets. That list also links to workaround patches for Linux-based systems. Nothing useful from Intel so far.
This is, essentially, a mega-gaffe by the semiconductor industry. As they souped up their CPUs to race them against each other, they left behind one thing in the dust. Security.
One way rival processors differentiate themselves, and perform faster than their competitors, is to rely on speculative execution. In order to keep their internal pipelines primed with computer code to obey, they do their best to guess which instructions will be executed next, fetch those from memory, and carry them out. If the CPU guesses wrong, it has to undo the speculatively executed code, and run the actual stuff required.
Unfortunately, the chips in our desktop PCs, laptops, phones, fondleslabs, and backend servers do not completely walk back every step taken when they realize they've gone down the wrong path of code. That means remnants of data they shouldn't have been allowed to fetch remain in their temporary caches, and can be accessed later.
The trick is to line up instructions in a normal user process that cause the processor to speculatively fetch data from protected kernel memory before performing any security checks. The crucial Meltdown-exploiting x86-64 code can be as simple as...
Trying to fetch a byte from the kernel address as a user process triggers an exception – but the subsequent instructions have already been speculatively executed out of order, and touch a cache line based on the content of that fetched byte.
An exception is raised, and handled non-fatally elsewhere, while the out-of-order instructions have already acted on the content of the byte. Doing some Flush+Reload magic on the cache reveals which cache line was touched and thus the content of the kernel memory byte. Repeat this over and over, and eventually you dump the contents of kernel memory.
On Wednesday, following research by a sizable collection of boffins, details of three closely related vulnerabilities involving the abuse of speculative execution in modern CPUs were made public:
These have been helpfully grouped into two logo'd and branded vulnerabilities: Meltdown (Variant 3), and Spectre (Variants 1 and 2). Both links go to a website with the full technical papers detailing the attacks if you want to see in gory detail how they work.
There is also a Google Project Zero blog post going over the finer points. Finally, here's some proof-of-concept exploit code that runs on Windows.
Here's a summary of the two branded bugs:
When running with root privileges inside a KVM guest created using virt-manager on the Intel Haswell Xeon CPU, with a specific (now outdated) version of Debian's distro kernel running on the host, can read host kernel memory at a rate of around 1500 bytes/second, with room for optimization. Before the attack can be performed, some initialization has to be performed that takes roughly between 10 and 30 minutes for a machine with 64GiB of RAM; the needed time should scale roughly linearly with the amount of host RAM.
We're told Intel, AMD and Arm were warned of these security holes back in June last year. Our advice is to sit tight, install OS and firmware security updates as soon as you can, don't run untrusted code, and consider turning on site isolation in Chrome to thwart malicious webpages trying to leverage these design flaws to steal session cookies from the browser process (Firefox has its own mitigations.)
If you are using the Xen hypervisor, you should grab security patches when they become available. Intel and AMD processors are affected, and they're still checking whether Arm is.
'Xen guests may be able to infer the contents of arbitrary host memory, including memory assigned to other guests,' due to these processor security holes, according to the hypervisor project team. If you've experienced a mass reboot – or are scheduled for one – by your public cloud provider, this may be why.
Meanwhile, VMware's ESXi, Workstation and Fusion hypervisors need patching to counteract the underlying hardware design flaws.
Finally, if you are of the opinion that us media types are being hysterical about this design blunder, check this out: CERT recommends throwing away your CPU and buying an non-vulnerable one to truly fix the issue. ®
CERT has downgraded its advice from 'replace CPU' to 'apply updates.'
Aetheryte Earring
Increases EXP earned by 30%!
Baby Gremlin Minion
An earring modeled after the aetherytes found in settlements across Eorzea. Please do not attempt to teleport to yourself.
This useful earring features attributes that will vary according to the user's class/job and current level when equipped. Additionally, the earring grants a 30% increase in EXP when worn, perfect for leveling your jobs to 70 in preparation for Shadowbringers!
* The bonus effect will only apply from level 1 through 70.
* Equippable only by Disciples of War or Magic classes and jobs.
There is nothing more invigorating than venturing into unfamiliar lands with a baby gremlin nipping at your heels and bad-mouthing your every move.
* Minions are vanity pets that do not have any effect on a player's attributes.
Pre-order FINAL FANTASY XIV: Shadowbringers at participating retailers and redeem your pre-order code during the specified period to receive early access. Early access is tentatively scheduled to begin on Friday, June 28 at 2:00 a.m. (PDT) and will allow users the ability to play Shadowbringers before the official release!
To be granted early access and play the new contents from FINAL FANTASY XIV: Shadowbringers, users need to be playing FINAL FANTASY XIV: Stormblood and have completed certain quests.
* This is the latest FINAL FANTASY XIV expansion pack and is intended for existing users.
* Registration of this product also grants users access to FINAL FANTASY XIV: Stormblood. View details.
* Content subject to change.
* Only in-game items will be bundled for Digital Download versions.
PlayStation®4
Physical - $199.99
Digital Download - $59.99
Windows®
Physical - $199.99
Digital Download - $59.99
* NOTE: The physical Windows® version does not include a game disc
Mac OS
Digital Download - $59.99
* NOTE: Mac version is only available as a Digital Download
A unique silver-inlaid box featuring an illustration by artist Yoshitaka Amano. The box is enclosed with a slipcase that surrounds the logo illustration in darkness to make for a striking image.
An impressive high-quality figure featuring the Warrior of Darkness as a dark knight. The figure is approximately 9.05' tall (23cm).
An art book featuring a wealth of illustrations and concept art used in the creation of Shadowbringers.
A reusable sticker cling featuring the design of the Shadowbringers logo. The sticker measures approximately 10.2' x 5.9' (26cm x 15cm).
A deck of playing cards featuring a range of artwork from A Realm Reborn through Shadowbringers.
Ride the formidable Grani and strike terror into the heart of any foe in your path. Caution is recommended when mounting the rather pointy beast.
* Players must meet certain conditions to be able to fly and dive.
Take Fran along as your partner in the skies, on land, or under the water.
* Minions are vanity pets that do not have any effect on a player's attributes.
Squall's iconic gunblade makes its appearance in FFXIV as a gunbreaker-exclusive weapon.
* Equippable by gunbreakers regardless of level.
* The weapon's stats will differ from those in FFVIII.
Digital upgrades for FINAL FANTASY XIV: Shadowbringers that include the Collector's Edition in-game items are now available via the Mog Station.
* This is the latest FINAL FANTASY XIV expansion pack and is intended for existing users.
* Registration of this product also grants users access to FINAL FANTASY XIV: Stormblood. View details.
PlayStation®4
Physical and Digital Download - $39.99
Windows®
Digital Download - $39.99
* NOTE: Windows version is only available as a Digital Download
Mac OS
Digital Download - $39.99
* NOTE: Mac version is only available as a Digital Download
This bundle includes 'FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn', 'FINAL FANTASY XIV: Heavensward', 'FINAL FANTASY XIV: Stormblood' and 'FINAL FANTASY XIV: Shadowbringers'.
PlayStation®4
Package and Digital Download - $59.99
Windows®
Digital Download - $59.99
* NOTE: Windows version is only available as a Digital Download
Mac OS
Digital Download - $59.99
* NOTE: Mac version is only available as a Digital Download
The FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Complete Edition includes a 30-day free play period.
A subscription is required to continue playing once this free period expires.
Read on for details.
* The 30-day free play period included with purchase can only be applied once to each platform on a single service account. Moreover, this 30-day free play period is not applicable to platforms on which a license has already been registered.