Something’s off.A reported Branch Target Reuse (BTR) attack turns an old CPU branch prediction into a possible route to sensitive data. Researchers reportedly reused a memory address after just-in-time-generated code had been removed; the processor could still predict a jump to the old target and briefly execute different code there.
According to the report, tests using Linux cBPF recovered a running “su” process’s root-password hash byte by byte, averaging 3 minutes on Raptor Cove and 5 minutes on Lion Cove. That is a hash rather than the plaintext password, and cracking it would still depend on the hash type and password strength.
The odd part is that code can be gone and replaced, while a branch predictor may retain its old guess long enough for a speculative-execution side channel. The report says Linux-kernel fixes have been merged, while browser-engine experiments did not produce a complete browser exploit.
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