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Flawed M-series chips

I bought a new MacBook Air M3 three weeks sho. What recourse do I have? Can I return it for a full refund?


MacBook Air 15″, macOS 14.4

Posted on Mar 24, 2024 12:16 PM

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Posted on Mar 24, 2024 12:41 PM

As usual, the press is overhyping the issue. Here's a much more level-headed article.


https://www.zetter-zeroday.com/apple-chips/


In short, nothing can happen unless the user installs software that can take advantage of the flaw. In other words, a Trojan. Nothing outside of the user allowing rogue software on their Mac can take advantage of the flaw.


Sometime back, there was a similar issue with Windows computers and certain Intel chips. Microsoft provided a software fix that blocked access to the flaw from within the OS. I would imagine Apple will come up with the same soft of fix.

27 replies

Mar 24, 2024 3:16 PM in response to Bluecatdj

Bluecatdj wrote:

“Researchers have discovered a new unpatchable security flaw that can break encryption on the best MacBooks if exploited by an attacker.
As reported by 9To5Mac, this recently discovered vulnerability affects every Mac running Apple silicon including the company’s M1M2 and M3 chips. To make matters worse, the flaw is present in the architecture of these chips which means there’s no way for Apple to fix it outright”

So what’s your point?

Mar 28, 2024 6:54 AM in response to Bluecatdj

Kudos to those who discovered the flaw, but it probably is mostly a proof of concept flaw than any sort of potential risk in the real world. The same hype happened with the Intel and AMD Spectre Meltdown flaw that was similar. That never really amounted to all the hype either. As they say, if you look hard enough you can find flaws in any part of a computer system.

Flawed M-series chips

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