MIT’s New Chip Attack Steals Protected Linux Data in Five Attempts

MIT researchers demonstrated TONTOU, an attack that injects precisely timed interrupts into gaps in Intel and AMD speculative-execution defenses.

The attack bypassed protections across multiple chip generations, defeated Linux memory randomization, and retrieved the root password file from an AMD system.

AMD released an operating-system mitigation, underscoring the need for software updates to protect against fleeting processor security gaps.