<s>
SWAPGS	B-Device
,	O
also	O
known	O
as	O
Spectre	B-Error_Name
variant	O
1	O
(	O
swapgs	B-Device
)	O
,	O
is	O
a	O
computer	O
security	O
vulnerability	O
that	O
utilizes	O
the	O
branch	B-General_Concept
prediction	I-General_Concept
used	O
in	O
modern	O
microprocessors	B-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
Most	O
processors	O
use	O
a	O
form	O
of	O
speculative	B-General_Concept
execution	I-General_Concept
,	O
this	O
feature	O
allows	O
the	O
processors	O
to	O
make	O
educated	O
guesses	O
about	O
the	O
instructions	O
that	O
will	O
most	O
likely	O
need	O
to	O
be	O
executed	O
in	O
the	O
near	O
future	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
speculation	O
can	O
leave	O
traces	O
in	O
the	O
cache	O
,	O
which	O
attackers	O
use	O
to	O
extract	O
data	O
using	O
a	O
timing	O
attack	O
,	O
similar	O
to	O
side-channel	O
exploitation	O
of	O
Spectre	B-Error_Name
.	O
</s>
<s>
SWAPGS	B-Device
is	O
closely	O
related	O
to	O
the	O
Spectre-V1	B-Error_Name
vulnerability	I-Error_Name
,	O
which	O
used	O
similar	O
side-channel	O
vulnerabilities	O
to	O
access	O
privileged	O
cache	O
memory	O
in	O
an	O
operating	O
system	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
vulnerability	O
was	O
discovered	O
by	O
Andrei	O
Vlad	O
Lutas	O
of	O
Bitdefender	B-Application
and	O
was	O
reported	O
to	O
Intel	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
first	O
patches	O
for	O
SWAPGS	B-Device
were	O
released	O
on	O
9	O
July	O
2019	O
as	O
part	O
of	O
the	O
Microsoft	O
Patch	O
Tuesday	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
SWAPGS	B-Device
itself	O
is	O
an	O
instruction	O
to	O
swap	O
the	O
GSBase	O
register	O
with	O
a	O
value	O
stored	O
in	O
MSR	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Any	O
Intel-based	O
processor	O
that	O
support	O
SWAPGS	B-Device
and	O
WRGSBASE	O
instructions	O
is	O
affected	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
includes	O
every	O
Intel	B-Device
processor	I-Device
starting	O
from	O
the	O
Intel	B-Device
Ivy	I-Device
Bridge	I-Device
CPUs	O
up	O
to	O
the	O
most	O
recent	O
Intel	B-Device
processors	I-Device
.	O
</s>
<s>
For	O
Linux	O
distributions	O
,	O
it	O
is	O
advised	O
to	O
check	O
whether	O
there	O
are	O
SWAPGS-specific	O
patches	O
that	O
need	O
to	O
be	O
applied	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Bitdefender	B-Application
mentions	O
in	O
its	O
original	O
report	O
that	O
Apple	O
devices	O
are	O
unlikely	O
to	O
be	O
at	O
risk	O
.	O
</s>
