Intel Finds Another Chip Exploit, Says Fix Is in Place

Intel said it found another way to attack computers related to the chip security flaws announced earlier this year, according to Bloomberg. The means to protect against the vulnerability is already in place and there is no evidence of it having been used to hack computers, Intel said in a statement on its website.

“We have not seen any reports of this method being used in real-world exploits,“ the company said in the statement. “Moreover, there are multiple ways for consumers and IT professionals to safeguard their systems against potential exploits, including browser-based mitigations that have already been deployed and are available for use today.“

The new variant is related to the previous Spectre and Meltdown flaws, Intel said. A potential way to exploit the vulnerability would be to try to access information via code run inside a web browser. Fixes for the original issues should have already closed off this avenue to those trying to gain illicit access, the company said. Nonetheless, Intel has created more code to make machines more safe. In tests, computers may be slowed down by 2 percent to 8 percent if the patches are used, Intel said.