New paper: Does malware based on Spectre exist?

The discovery of the

Spectre and Meltdown

attacks in January cast a long shadow over the year, with many of the issued security patches having their own problems and several new variants of the two attacks having been discovered.

Yet many questions about the attacks remain unanswered. In a

presentation

at the inaugural Pass the Salt conference earlier this month,

Fortinet

researcher Axelle Apvrille tried to answer two of these questions:

1. Are
   
   Android
   
   phones vulnerable to Spectre-based attacks?
2. How can we detect malware that uses Spectre, and does any exist?

Axelle has written a paper for

VB

based on her presentation, which we are pleased to publish today, both in

HTML

and

PDF

format.

Axelle’s focus on

Android

isn’t surprising: she is one of the world’s leading researchers when it comes to mobile malware in general, and

Android

in particular – and for that reason we are excited that she will deliver a short workshop on

Android

reverse engineering at

VB2018

in Montreal this October.

Axelle’s workshop is just one of many great reasons to come to VB2018. Check out the

speaker page

for details of other leading experts presenting at the event, and check out the

programme

for full details of what else is on the agenda –

book your ticket

now for what promises to be a memorable event!