Vulnerabilities
Meltdown
Also known as: Rogue Data Cache Load
Definition
A microarchitectural vulnerability (CVE-2017-5754) that lets unprivileged code read kernel memory by exploiting out-of-order execution and a delayed permission check.
Examples
- Proof-of-concept that prints /etc/shadow from an unprivileged process on a vulnerable Intel CPU.
- Cloud KPTI rollout in early 2018 to mitigate cross-tenant kernel reads.
Related terms
Spectre
A family of microarchitectural attacks that abuse CPU speculative execution to leak data across security boundaries via cache-based side channels.
Side-Channel Attack
An attack that recovers secrets from a system by observing physical or implementation characteristics — timing, power, electromagnetic emissions, caches, acoustic signals — rather than logical flaws.
Timing Attack
A side-channel attack that recovers secret information by measuring how long an operation takes under different inputs.
Vulnerability
A weakness in a system, application, or process that an attacker can exploit to violate confidentiality, integrity, or availability.
CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures)
A public catalogue that assigns a unique identifier to each disclosed software or hardware vulnerability so they can be referenced unambiguously across the industry.
Rowhammer
A hardware vulnerability in DRAM where repeatedly activating one memory row causes bit flips in physically adjacent rows, undermining memory integrity.