AMD Warns That Ryzen 5000 Series Processors Could Be Vulnerable to Spectre-Like Side-Channel Attacks Due to Zen 3 Performance Feature

[Tsing]

Image: AMD



AMD Ryzen 5000 Series users who are focused on security may want to disable their processor’s new Predictive Store Forwarding (PSF) feature. As red team explains in a recently published paper, this feature, which was introduced as part of the company’s new Zen 3 core architecture, may open up the CPUs to the same kind of Spectre-like side-channel attacks that have plagued many of Intel’s Core processors. This is because PSF leverages speculative execution—the same performance-enhancing technique that attackers have exploited to enable infamous attacks such as Spectre, Meltdown, Spectre-NG, and ZombieLoad.



US chipmaker AMD advised customers last week to disable a new performance feature if they plan to use CPUs for sensitive operations, as this feature is vulnerable to Spectre-like side-channel attacks https://t.co/DlDRJET5Yx— The...

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[Grimlakin]

Kind of sad that they went this route for performance knowing it was already exploited elsewhere.

 

[Nanobot]

Why doesn’t this surprise me?

 

[Dogsofjune]

Oh well

 

[Zarathustra]

Maybe it is just time that all new CPU designs bite the bullet and permanently do away with any form of branch prediction?

 

[Dan_D]

Kind of sad that they went this route for performance knowing it was already exploited elsewhere.

Not really. Especially when they can add a toggle for it in the UEFI. It's also not as risky on the desktop.

Why doesn’t this surprise me?

Because it shouldn't? It certainly doesn't surprise me. I remember reading AMD processor errata a long time ago. It read like a horror show. AMD has been pulling a lot of the same **** that Intel has been doing for decades. They just don't normally end up in the spotlight for it.

Maybe it is just time that all new CPU designs bite the bullet and permanently do away with any form of branch prediction?

They would take a huge step backwards in terms of IPC.

 

[Niner51]

Because it shouldn't? It certainly doesn't surprise me. I remember reading AMD processor errata a long time ago. It read like a horror show. AMD has been pulling a lot of the same **** that Intel has been doing for decades. They just don't normally end up in the spotlight for it.

My thoughts exactly.