A Christmas Carol - The Spectres of the Past, Present, and Future

Explore the complex world of Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities in this comprehensive conference talk from the 35th Chaos Communication Congress. Delve into the history of these critical security flaws in modern processors, their various iterations, and the challenges they pose. Learn about a novel classification system designed to simplify the naming complexity of different variants. Examine proposed mitigations for these vulnerabilities and understand how attackers can still exploit systems despite implemented countermeasures. Discover new variants of the Meltdown attack that target different CPU components. Gain valuable insights from security experts Moritz Lipp, Michael Schwarz, Daniel Gruss, and Claudio Canella as they unravel the intricacies of these processor vulnerabilities and their ongoing impact on computer security.