MIT boffins' TONTOU attack slips through Spectre defenses on Intel and AMD CPUs
Their attack targets mitigations designed to neutralize potentially hostile branch predictor states before sensitive code runs.Such neutralization is an important defense against Spectre-style attacks. Depending on the mitigation, the processor or operating system isolates, clears, or safely retrains relevant predictor state when entering privileged code or shortly before a protected branch executes. REG AD googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('labrador/thereg/article/desktop/b'); }); Different chipmakers deploy neutralization mitigations slightly differently.
- ▪Their attack targets mitigations designed to neutralize potentially hostile branch predictor states before sensitive code runs.Such neutralization is an important defense against Spectre-style attacks.
- ▪Depending on the mitigation, the processor or operating system isolates, clears, or safely retrains relevant predictor state when entering privileged code or shortly before a protected branch executes.
- ▪REG AD googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('labrador/thereg/article/desktop/b'); }); Different chipmakers deploy neutralization mitigations slightly differently.
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| Original publisher | The Register |
| Canonical URL | https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/08/07/mit-boffins-tontou-attack-slips-through-spectre-defenses-on-intel-and-amd-cpus/5284081 |
| Publication time | Fri, 07 Aug 2026 16:15:00 +0200 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-08-07T14:15:42.095Z |
| Last seen | 2026-08-07T14:15:42.095Z |
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| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
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| Cluster | HGve2S4p3D3W · 1 stories |
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| Indexing | May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)? | Allowed |
| Snippet | May a short excerpt of the publisher's text be shown? | Allowed |
| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
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Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
(function() { let windowUrl = window.location.href; windowUrl = windowUrl.substring(windowUrl.indexOf('?') + 1); let messageElement = document.querySelector('.shareableMessage'); if (windowUrl && windowUrl.includes('code') && windowUrl.includes('expires')) { messageElement.style.display = 'block'; } })(); security MIT boffins' TONTOU attack slips through Spectre defenses on Intel and AMD CPUs Timer interrupts reopen branch predictor poisoning window, with a working Zen 2 exploit to prove it Connor Jones Connor Jones Cybersecurity reporter Published fri 7 Aug 2026 // 15:15 UTC Two MIT researchers will present a new speculative execution attack at DEF CON 34 that uses precisely timed interrupts to bypass defenses against Spectre v2.Daniël Trujillo and Mengjia Yan of MIT's Computer Science…
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