Researchers warn that a bug in AMD’s chips would allow attackers to root into some of the most privileged portions of a computer—and that it has persisted in the company’s processors for decades.
To take advantage of the vulnerability, a hacker has to already possess access to a computer’s kernel, the core of its operating system.
For systems with certain faulty configurations in how a computer maker implemented AMD’s security feature known as Platform Secure Boot—which the researchers warn encompasses the large majority of the systems they tested—a malware infection installed via Sinkclose could be harder yet to detect or remediate, they say, surviving even a reinstallation of the operating system.
For users seeking to protect themselves, Nissim and Okupski say that for Windows machines—likely the vast majority of affected systems—they expect patches for Sinkclose to be integrated into updates shared by computer makers with Microsoft, who will roll them into future operating system updates.
the most relevant:
So just another layer of suck on an already completely compromised machine, I guess.
It sounds like there’s no way to patch it once it’s the exploit has been used on a machine, though, so until one goes out it’s open season.