Everything about Foreshadow
Hardware vulnerability for Intel processors
Foreshadow, known as L1 Terminal Fault (L1TF) by Intel, is a vulnerability that affects modern microprocessors that was first discovered by two independent teams of researchers in January 2018, but was first disclosed to the public on 14 August 2018. The vulnerability is a speculative execution attack on Intel processors that may result in the disclosure of sensitive information stored in personal computers and third-party clouds. There are two versions: the first version (original/Foreshadow) targets data from SGX enclaves; and the second version (next-generation/Foreshadow-NG) targets virtual machines (VMs), hypervisors (VMM), operating systems (OS) kernel memory, and System Management Mode (SMM) memory. A listing of affected Intel hardware has been posted. Wikipedia →
🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path
- Read the overview: ForeshadowA 5-minute orientation
- Skim a recent paper: Dynamics of large benthic foraminiferal assemblages: A tool to foreshadow reef degradation?Influential work since 2022
- Pick up a classic book: The Time Traveler's WifeThe most-reprinted book on the subject
- Read the landmark paper: Changes in Gene Expression Foreshadow Diet-Induced Obesity in Genetically Identical MiceCited 293 times
- Go sideways: Software Guard ExtensionsA closely related topic
- Go sideways: Transient execution CPU vulnerabilityA closely related topic
📖 Definitions
Verb To suggest (someone or something) in advance; to prefigure, to presage.
Verb Of a person: to have an intuition or premonition about (something); to forebode.
Noun A suggestion of something in advance; a harbinger, a portent.
🗂️ The subject at a glance
🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)
Changes in Gene Expression Foreshadow Diet-Induced Obesity in Genetically Identical Mice
SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations in wastewater foreshadow dynamics and clinical presentation of new COVID-19 cases
Love, marriage, and divorce: Newlyweds' stress hormones foreshadow relationship changes.
Blunted ventral striatal responses to anticipated rewards foreshadow problematic drug use in novelty-seeking adolescents
The Future of Prediction: How Google Searches Foreshadow Housing Prices and Sales
Diffusion within Marcia's identity-status paradigm: Does it foreshadow academic problems?
Pregnancy Complications Can Foreshadow Future Disease—Long-Term Outcomes of a Complicated Pregnancy
Seismic quiescence in the Western Hellenic Arc may foreshadow large earthquakes
🆕 Influential since 2022
Dynamics of large benthic foraminiferal assemblages: A tool to foreshadow reef degradation?
Does the rise in seasonal respiratory viruses foreshadow the return of invasive pneumococcal disease this winter?
Experiences of Maltreatment in Early Childhood Foreshadow Intimate Partner Violence in Young Adulthood: A Cascading Process Model Spanning 20 Years of Life
Commentary on Copeland et al.: Does xylazine in the United Kingdom foreshadow a European synthetic polysubstance drug crisis?
Does childhood obesity foreshadow a future time-bomb of early and more aggressive cancers?
📚 Books worth reading
The Time Traveler's WifeAudrey Niffenegger · 2003
Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.
🔗 Related topics
- Software Guard Extensions Intel Software Guard Extensions (SGX) is a set of instruction codes implementing trusted execution environment that are built into some Intel central processing…
- Transient execution CPU vulnerability Transient execution CPU vulnerabilities are vulnerabilities in which instructions, most often optimized using speculative execution, are executed temporarily…
- Spectre (security vulnerability) Spectre is a class of speculative execution CPU vulnerabilities that involve side-channel attacks, first discovered in 2017. There are multiple variants…
- Meltdown (security vulnerability) Meltdown is one of the two original speculative execution CPU vulnerabilities (the other being Spectre). Meltdown affects Intel x86 microprocessors, IBM…
- Speculative Store Bypass Speculative Store Bypass (SSB) (CVE-2018-3639) is the name given to a hardware security vulnerability and its exploitation that takes advantage of speculative…
- Microarchitectural Data Sampling The Microarchitectural Data Sampling (MDS) vulnerabilities are a set of weaknesses in Intel x86 microprocessors that use hyper-threading, and leak data…
- Hardware security bug In digital computing, hardware security bugs are hardware bugs or flaws that create vulnerabilities affecting computer central processing units (CPUs)…
- Downfall (security vulnerability) Downfall, known as Gather Data Sampling (GDS) by Intel, is a computer security vulnerability found in 6th through 11th generations of consumer and 1st…