Plundervolt: A new attack on Intel processors threatening SGX data

Plundervolt: A new attack on Intel processors threatening SGX data

Simply put; Plundervolt flaw lets attackers manipulate voltage delivered to targeted CPU and steal data. 


Altering Intel’s CPU voltages and frequency directly in the operating system is a feature that many users appreciate as it allows them to use all those software-based utilities that aid in overclocking. Now, this feature may not be as secure as previously anticipated.


Recently a team of cybersecurity experts proved that this particular feature can be exploited by threat actors that can cause substantial damage by aiming to hijack Intel SGX. For those who don’t know, Intel SGX is an extremely critical and hardware-isolated space on new models of Intel CPUs responsible for encrypting sensitive data for protecting it from being stolen in case the system gets compromised.


The research team comprised of six European members from the University of Birmingham, KU Leuven, and the Graz University of Technology. The attack technique is dubbed Plundervolt and classified as CVE-2019-11157.

According to the team’s findings, the attack exploits the modern processor’s frequency and voltage adjustment feature, by controlling it in a way to generate errors in the system’s memory through flipping bits. This attack affects almost all those Intel Core Processors that are SGX-enabled including the Skylake generation.


However, the technique was identified and reported to Intel in June 2019 and now that the company has fixed the i ..

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