MIT CSAIL researchers Daniël Trujillo and Mengjia Yan discovered INTERRUPT INJECTION, a technique that can time Linux interrupts to slip between branch predictor sanitization and kernel use, enabling speculative execution leakage. They demonstrated arbitrary kernel memory disclosure on AMD Zen 2 and showed the issue affects AMD’s Safe RET mitigation on Zen 1 through Zen 4, with a Linux kernel fix already available. #INTERRUPTINJECTION #SafeRET #AMDZen2 #AMDZen4 #LinuxKernel
Keypoints
- INTERRUPT INJECTION abuses an interrupt timing gap in Spectre v2 defenses.
- The attack can leak kernel memory on an AMD Zen 2 system with local code execution only.
- AMD’s Safe RET mitigation is affected on Zen 1 through Zen 4 processors.
- A Linux kernel patch, “Make Safe-RET robust against interrupt injection,” is already available.
- The researchers say Intel may also be exposed if a disclosure gadget exists in the kernel.
Read More: https://thehackernews.com/2026/08/new-interrupt-injection-attack-can.html