Intel is getting ready to launch a new security product that could dramatically reduce opportunities for hijacking. Called Intel Control-Flow Enforcement Technology (Intel CET), the product is designed to protect against the misuse of legitimate code through control-flow hijacking attacks. This technique is widely used in large classes of malware, and it’s been a challenge to mitigate the problem with software alone. Intel CET will offer CPU-level security capabilities from Intel’s upcoming mobile processer — code-named Tiger Lake — onwards.
As computer security has become more advanced, hackers have become more resourceful, increasingly finding ways to bypass protections – exploiting memory safety is one such way. Return Oriented Programming (also known as ROP) and Jump Oriented Programming (also known as JOP) in particular are popular with nefarious types. JOP or ROP attacks can be hard to detect or prevent because the attacker uses existing code running from executable memory in a creative way to change program behavior.
