In a few months It will be four years since Apple Silicon was introduced to those from Cupertinoat the opening event of WWDC 2020. As you may remember, this marked Apple’s break with Intel, whose integrated components it had used in its computers since 2005. If you are interested in delving into Apple’s history with integrated components in its computers, I highly recommend this article by my colleague Tomáš .

As with the announcement of the transition to Intel, the adoption of Apple Silicon was not an immediate process, as the first devices with domestic integrated devices arrived in November 2020 and the transition was completed in June of last year. the highly anticipated arrival of the first Mac Pro with the Apple M2 Ultra. and since then, we also saw the arrival of the third generation SoC company, with the introduction of the Apple M3 in October last year.

In general, we can think about it the migration was successful, because the performance of Apple’s computer chips is up to the challenge (in some cases more than others, yes) and in general the opinions of users of these devices seem quite positive, which tells us that the work done by Apple’s engineers deserves credit on both the hardware and software sides . If we have been able to confirm this without nuance until now, we now find ourselves with a revelation that represents a significant blot on his record.

As we read in Ars Technica, Apple’s Silicon M chips suffer from a design vulnerability that compromises the cryptographic keys used in the system. And the main problem, as you probably already imagined, is that when talking about a problem in the physical design of an integrated device, it is not possible to solve it in software. Yes, it is feasible and we can put our hand to the fact that Apple is already working on it, to create a solution that mitigates the risks associated with this failure, although, and as we have already seen in other cases in the past, This will certainly affect the performance of the affected systems , once they are fixed.

In short, this vulnerability manifests itself when, at runtime and in specific areas of the CPU, specific encryption operations with the launch of malicious applications which have standard user system privileges. When this circumstance occurs, malicious software can gain access to the encryption keys, compromising the security of the entire system and, of course, the user’s data.

So we are talking about side channel attack, as well as the still-remembered Meltdown and Spectre, which were so popular at the time, and other problems of this type that we have only recently become aware of. And from there, more specifically from the measures taken by the affected manufacturers, we can draw the conclusion I already mentioned, that the patches to mitigate this problem in Apple Silicon M will undoubtedly affect their performance, something that will of course be more noticeable in the most basic and older versions.

At the time of publishing this report, there is no official communication from Apple in this regard.. However, I want to think it’s because they prioritized developing patches that mitigate this threat in the first place.