3 ms·
> 3-letter agency From the wikipedia page for Meltdown: "On 8 May 1995, a paper called "The Intel 80x86 Processor Architecture: Pitfalls for Secure Systems" pu
by mhh__ 6y ago
> 3-letter agency
From the wikipedia page for Meltdown: "On 8 May 1995, a paper called "The Intel 80x86 Processor Architecture: Pitfalls for Secure Systems" published at the 1995 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy warned against a covert timing channel in the CPU cache and translation lookaside buffer (TLB). This analysis was performed under the auspices of the National Security Agency's Trusted Products Evaluation Program (TPEP)."
i.e. did they know even in 1995?
- vmladenov 6y agoMy understanding is that people at the time were aware of potential problems but no vulnerability had been identified. I found some discussion here: https://security.stackexchange.com/a/177256 https://security.stackexchange.com/a/177256
- gumby 6y agoNSA used to have an active effort on information assurance, under the philosophy that it defended the country to have good civilian security (same reason for the NSA’s modification to the DES S-box). This unfortunately has fallen by the wayside. (NSA shortened the key as well so it wasn’t all bunnies and chocolate)