AMD CPU Is Vulnerable Until The Patch Is Installed

After the serious Intel CPU vulnerabilities Specter and Meltdown, a similar problem has now been discovered with AMD chipsets. The manufacturer is now warning of attacks and has provided an emergency patch. Users should act quickly.

That comes from a report by the online magazine Beta News. Security researchers from ZeroPeril have discovered a security hole in the “AMD Platform Security Processor” (PSP) chipset, driver. This driver is used for several CPU architectures. The security vulnerability known as CVE-2021-26333 is comparable to Specter and Meltdown, two critical vulnerabilities that were discovered at Intel in recent years and at times caused massive problems.

Driver update necessary via Windows Update

The vulnerability has been rated as moderate and is summarized by AMD as follows: “Malicious users with low privileges may be able to access and spy on data via the AMD chipset driver.”

A Large number of AMD CPUs are affected

The vulnerability discovered by ZeroPeril can be exploited to access sensitive data such as passwords from the memory. The problem affects a wide variety of AMD processors. AMD has released a patch that users should install as soon as possible. There is also a list of the affected systems. AMD recommends an update to the AMD PSP driver 5.17.0.0 via Windows Update or an update to the AMD chipset driver 3.08.17.735 or newer.

There are currently no reports of active attacks on this vulnerability in AMD chipsets.

The full list of affected products is here:

• 2nd generation AMD Ryzen Mobile processor with Radeon graphics
• 2nd generation AMD Ryzen Threadripper processor
• 3rd generation AMD Ryzen Threadripper processors
• 6th generation AMD A-series CPU with Radeon graphics
• 6th generation AMD A-series mobile processor
• 6th generation AMD FX APU with Radeon R7 graphics
• 7th Generation AMD A-Series APUs
• 7th Generation AMD A-Series Mobile Processor
• 7th generation AMD E-Series mobile processor
• AMD A4 series APU with Radeon graphics
• AMD A6 APU with Radeon R5 graphics card
• AMD A8 APU with Radeon R6 graphics
• AMD A10 APU with Radeon R6 graphics
• AMD 3000 series mobile processors with Radeon graphics cards
• AMD Athlon 3000 series mobile processors with Radeon graphics cards
• AMD Athlon mobile processors with Radeon graphics
• AMD Athlon X4 processor
• AMD Athlon 3000 series mobile processors with Radeon graphics
• AMD Athlon X4 processor
• AMD APU of the E1 series with Radeon graphics
• AMD Ryzen 1000 series processor
• AMD Ryzen 2000 series desktop processor
• AMD Ryzen 2000 series mobile processor
• AMD Ryzen 3000 series desktop processor
• AMD Ryzen 3000 series mobile processor with Radeon graphics
• AMD Ryzen 3000 Series Mobile Processor
• AMD Ryzen 4000 series desktop processor with Radeon graphics
• AMD Ryzen 5000 series desktop processor
• AMD Ryzen 5000 series desktop processor with Radeon graphics
• AMD Ryzen 5000 series mobile processors with Radeon graphics
• AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO processor
• AMD Ryzen Threadripper processor