Mitigating hardware vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel
Arena | Tue 14 Jan | 11:40 a.m.–12:25 p.m.
Presented by
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Antonio is a software engineer in Intel where he focuses on security software mitigations. He holds a Ph.D. in computer science and has worked in different roles in the areas of performance, computer architecture, parallel programming, and security for the last 15 years.
Antonio is a software engineer in Intel where he focuses on security software mitigations. He holds a Ph.D. in computer science and has worked in different roles in the areas of performance, computer architecture, parallel programming, and security for the last 15 years.
Abstract
Recently, researchers have disclosed a new set of innovative exploit methods that target common hardware abstractions of many modern CPUs. While methods are relevant to many technology contexts, confusion remains around what these methods are, what the threat model of potential real-world implementations could be, and why those hardware abstractions are included in modern processors in the first place. The existing mitigations for commercial components are implemented in software. This presentation examines what these software mitigations look like and what they do.
Recently, researchers have disclosed a new set of innovative exploit methods that target common hardware abstractions of many modern CPUs. While methods are relevant to many technology contexts, confusion remains around what these methods are, what the threat model of potential real-world implementations could be, and why those hardware abstractions are included in modern processors in the first place. The existing mitigations for commercial components are implemented in software. This presentation examines what these software mitigations look like and what they do.