Chinese Loongson processors have leaky caches, researchers find
- ID
- 13775
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 13 Aug 2026, 10:14 AM
- Fetched
- 13 Aug 2026, 3:20 PM
- Provider
- The Register
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/08/13/chinese-loongson-processors-have-leaky-caches-researchers-find/5287137
- Source URL
- https://www.theregister.com/headlines.atom
Summary
- Score
- 2.0
- Created
- 13 Aug 2026, 3:20 PM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersai-ml-learners
What happened
Researchers from Germany's Helmholtz Center for Information Security found that Chinese Loongson processors (pre-3A6000) have leaky L1 data caches exploitable via an architectural flaw in the LoongArch ISA, allowing unprivileged attackers to recover kernel AES keys, root password hashes, and bypass ASLR within seconds—even from inside a VM. Software mitigations are not possible; affected users must either replace the chip or evict private data from L1 cache (costing ~1.4% performance), which can require disabling hyperthreading.
Why it matters
Almost certainly irrelevant to Malaysian builders unless you are running workloads on Loongson hardware or evaluating it for procurement. The practical takeaway is narrow: if you are sourcing Loongson chips for cost or sovereignty reasons, only buy the 3A6000 or later, and treat earlier models as unfixable for multi-tenant or VM workloads.
Discussion angle
Whether niche CPU supply-chain choices (e.g., Loongson for cost or geopolitical reasons) carry hidden operational risks that mainstream x86/ARM procurement avoids, and how to factor unpatchable hardware flaws into infrastructure decisions.