MIT's Fractal kernel reveals previously unknown behavior in Apple's M1 chip
By
Rachel Gordon | MIT CSAIL
Fresh out the oven, still warm. Top of the tray.
Summary
MIT researchers developed a new operating system kernel called "Fractal" that gives security researchers a cleaner, more detailed view of processor behavior. Unlike standard OS kernels (macOS, Linux) that obscure low-level chip operations, Fractal was designed specifically for studying processor internals. Using Fractal, researchers discovered previously unknown behavior in Apple's M1 chip's branch predictor, revealing a potential vulnerability to speculative execution attacks like Spectre and Meltdown.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledWhen security researchers want to understand what a modern processor is really doing with the kind of detail that determines whether attacks like Spectre and Meltdown are possible, they usually run their experiments on top of an operating system that was never built for the job.
They open up macOS or Linux, patch the kernel by hand
Called Fractal and developed at MIT, the kernel has already surfaced previously unknown behavior in Apple's M1.
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