Intel Stock Falls on Report of New Chip Security Vulnerability

(Bloomberg) -- Intel Corp. shares dipped after the company, whose processors power the majority of the world’s computers, revealed another potential security flaw that could allow illicit access to data.

The world’s second-largest chipmaker earlier this year released microcode and made available software Tuesday that will protect potentially vulnerable machines, the company said in a statement. Users of its products should update their systems to keep them safe, Intel said.

A limited number of server computers would be at risk to an exploit that would be extremely difficult to implement, Intel said.

“We are not aware of reports that any of these methods have been used in real-world exploits, but this further underscores the need for everyone to adhere to security best practices,” the company said.

Intel shares fell as much as 1.7 percent on reports of the vulnerability before erasing some of the loss. They declined 0.9 percent to $48.03 at 2:43 p.m. in New York.

The Santa Clara, California-based chipmaker was criticized earlier this year for being slow to acknowledge and mitigate similar vulnerabilities to hardware previously thought to be secure in two exploits knows as Spectre and Meltdown. The exploits countered years of industry assertions that data secured by hardware is much safer than that protected by software. Intel said again Tuesday that future versions of its chips, starting this year, will close off the potential window for access to information such as passwords and encryption keys.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ian King in San Francisco at ianking@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Andrew Pollack, Molly Schuetz

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