AMD Processor Vulnerabilities

CTSLabs has published a whitepaper outlining 13 critical vulnerabilities discovered in AMD processors. The vulnerabilities, classified under the names RyzenFall, Fallout, Chimera and MasterKey, affect AMD Secure Processors and AMD Ryzen Chipsets. CTSLabs states that if exploited, these vulnerabilities would allow attackers to install malicious code inside the Secure Processor, allow read and write access to protected memory areas, steal network credentials protected by Windows Credential Guard, cause physical damage to hardware and perform a variety of other malicious tasks. If their statement is accurate, this represents a critical and widespread security issue.

According to the whitepaper, successful exploitation requires local access with elevated privileges. eSentire has not observed any attacks in the wild and no proof of concept code has been identified [1].

What we’re doing about it

• The eSentire Threat Intelligence team is actively monitoring this issue for additional information.

What you should do about it

• Mitigating actions should be reserved until the findings and technical details have been confirmed by AMD.

Additional information

Technical details for these vulnerabilities have not being released. As such, eSentire cannot attest to the validity of CTSLabs’ claims. In a statement, AMD was recently made aware of the issues and is currently investigating. Mitigating actions should be reserved until the findings and technical details have been confirmed by AMD.

[1] https://safefirmware.com/amdflaws_whitepaper.pdf