Allen
Hotshot
Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 8,839
Ohio USA
Seems no-one is safe from the above mentioned security holes -- even GPUs.
Quote
Nvidia's admits its GPUs are affected by Spectre flaws
Given Nvidia shares GPU architecture across all its graphics tech, from GeForce gaming cards to enterprise-grade Quadro and Tesla chips, it seems a whole host of Nvidia kit is affected by Spectre..
Spectre is more difficult to exploit and there are no reports of it being used outside of lab and proof-of-concept cyber attacks..
But Nvidia still has to plug the security hole even if it could affect the performance of its GPUs, as is the case with other fixes for Spectre and Meltdown, ..
So, its not that anyone will "attack" an Nvidia GPU -- that's may be too hard to do -- even without protective code. However, Nvidia must make themselves "bulletproof" with protective code -- and the fix may impair their GPUs' normal operation.
I don't know about AMD GPUs, yet -- nothing will surprise me.
Again, none of these "flaws" are likely to be exploited for Intel, Nvidia, or AMD. What worries is that the code changes (required to make exploitation impossible) will damage performance for all 3 manufacturers -- to differing amounts.