Re: This is not a bug. THIS is NOT a BUG. THIS IS NOT A BUG.
"These chips have NEVER been sold as "unhackable" or even hack-resistant."
OTOH Intel does promote the "security" features of their chips very loudly and have done for quite a few years now. I don't think it's a facade either, Intel really have applied themselves to creating a highly sophisticated (ie: complex) hairball of security features.
IMO they need to rethink their approach to securing their platforms, work hard to cut the fat, simplify, make it *easy* to comprehensively validate that the systems are actually secure. I say this because it's clear that validating a contemporary x86 chip is *hard* if not impossible. In my view Intel (and AMD) have got a lot of bright folks working for them - many of whom I believe would favor prioritizing validation over checkbox features.
I *hope* Spectre & Meltdown do prod vendors to improve their products, but the x86 gene pool is very shallow - there is too little competition and too much inertia to overcome.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
