AMD Processor is Under Attack

By: Sahar Tadayyon

A New Proof of concept virus has been found out by Security researchers at Symantec that attacks AMD processors instead of operating system. This worm has two versions, w32.bounds and w64.bounds which target 32-bit and 64-bit processors of AMD.
So far, viruses have targeted software and they couldn’t make any destruction in hardware part of computers. However, this virus is a proof of concept. This can be developed by other hackers to be more destructive and create more havoc.

The Inquirer website reports about it:
“Vincent Weafer, senior director of Symantec's Security Response Group said that once hackers got to the processor level, they could rip into the core hardware and evade kernel and user protection.

Symantec figures that the next stage would be to mix the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the malware to create a single virus that can target both Intel and AMD families. The technique probably would not be used as a mass attack, but could be quite good as a targeted take-down method, Symantec says.

Most virus writers can’t be arsed with hitting the chip as it is a lot easier to design hacks into operating systems. There has not been a good chip level threat since 1998 when the CIH/Chernobyl worm embedded itself into the flash-BIOS of several million computers and destroyed data.”

Fortunately, according to Vincent Weafer’s words, there is a hope that this virus can not target many computers at the same time and can not be infectious.