Intel: BranchScope vulnerability does not require new patches

Earlier this week, I reported about new branch prediction vulnerabilities that were discovered by an international team of university researchers. In a statement to The Register, Intel commented that BranchScope is most likely covered by existing software mitigations for previously known side channel exploits.

Additionally, Intel also responded to the discovery of a vulnerability pertaining to the Intel SGX. There was some buzz about a flaw in Intel SGX that could allow criminals to stealthily steal Bitcoins, but Intel claims it's nothing new:

Intel characterised the presentation and the paper (PDF) describing it as a known method, described here,and re-heated to consider Bitcoin.

“This presentation describes a previously known method to recover an RSA key from an enclave containing RSA crypto code that is vulnerable to a side channel exploit,” an intel spokesperson said. “This can be prevented by SGX application developers through utilization of an appropriate side channel attack-resistant crypto implementation inside the enclave.” Intel pointed us