{"id":83535,"date":"2018-01-05T11:37:26","date_gmt":"2018-01-05T19:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/securingtomorrow.mcafee.com\/?p=83535"},"modified":"2025-08-13T22:31:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T05:31:13","slug":"meltdown-and-spectre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/internet-security\/meltdown-and-spectre\/","title":{"rendered":"Meltdown and Spectre 101: What to Know About the New Exploits"},"content":{"rendered":"

Between the Blueborne vulnerabilities and the High Sierra Mac flaw \u2013 we saw some nasty bugs in 2017. Now, 2018 has already introduced us to some powerful new exploits: Meltdown and Spectre<\/a>. These are cyber-attack techniques that seek to exploit operating system technologies that normally function safely, as designed, but researchers have cleverly identified a way to use these benign technologies for malicious purposes. They basically manipulate the protections that separate applications from operating systems, as well as applications from other applications running on the same computer. They also affect a wide range of devices that we use in our daily lives, including both PCs and phones.<\/p>\n

So, how exactly could Meltdown and Spectre<\/a> have such an impact? First, let\u2019s back up and explore the role they play in operating systems. Most modern operating systems perform speculative execution, and even execute instructions before it is certain that those instructions need to be executed. This makes it possible for one process to infer that some data belongs to another process.<\/p>\n

As McAfee CTO Steve Grobman views it, we should think of these vulnerabilities in the sense of modern banking — we rely on banks to perform operations on our behalf, and when we request that a payment is made, our banks will move things around behind the scenes to ensure successful transactions we couldn\u2019t execute as individuals. Just like with banking, we rely on these operating systems to perform services on our behalf, which often involves important data.<\/p>\n

Now, what\u2019s dangerous about Meltdown and Spectre is that these attacks can \u201cmelt\u201d the barriers between unprivileged applications and the privileged operating system. Essentially, this means pulling back the curtains on all the behind-the-scenes data involved in these services. This allows attackers that leverage Meltdown and Spectre to potentially steal passwords, financial data or information from other applications. What’s more – cybercriminals are attempting to leverage these exploits in other ways too, as a fake patch is currently being circulated that is actually a front for a malware called Smoke Loader.<\/p>\n

Tips to Protect Your Data and Devices<\/h2>\n

So, the next question is – how do you ensure your devices and data are protected from these exploits? You can start by following these tips:<\/p>\n