Apple this week unveiled its new M1 chip and the company has provided a brief description of its security features.
The tech giant told SecurityWeek that it will detail the M1’s security features in the coming weeks. For now, it has only shared limited information, but it was still enough for experts to share some thoughts.
Apple says the M1 is the first system-on-chip (SoC) designed specifically for the Mac. The chip uses 5nm technology, it has 16 billion transistors, and it includes an 8-core CPU, as well as an 8-core GPU, which the company says deliver high performance without consuming a lot of power.
In terms of security features, Apple says the M1 chip includes the latest generation Secure Enclave, a high-performance storage controller with AES encryption hardware, and hardware‑verified secure boot. The company says it has built new security protections “deep into the code execution architecture of M1.”
Security researcher Daniel Gruss told SecurityWeek that the M1 chip does not appear to contain any breakthroughs in terms of security.
Nevertheless, Gruss said, “The M1 is a very interesting and cutting-edge piece of hardware with state-of-the-art security techniques based on the information that has become public so far.”
Gruss is a researcher at the Graz University of Technology in Austria. He is one of the researchers involved in the discovery of Meltdown, Specter and several other significant processor vulnerabilities, including the recently disclosed PLATYPUS attack, which can be used to obtain sensitive data by monitoring a processor’s power consumption.
Jesse Michael, principal researcher at hardware security company apple unveils security features
