● Covered by 1 source · 1 reportLow impact1 neutral
Exploit Grants Hardware-Level Control on AMD 2011-2015 CPUs via Single Instruction
Key points
- Exploit "Skitter Creek Bath Salts" affects AMD 15h and 16h CPU families (2011-2015).
- A single instruction grants access to protected memory areas like PSP and SMM.
- Kernel-level access is required to execute the exploit.
- AMD states affected chips are out of security support.
New Exploit Targets Older AMD CPUs
A cybersecurity exploit, dubbed Skitter Creek Bath Salts (Skitter), has been developed to target specific AMD CPUs. This exploit allows an attacker to gain full hardware-level control over affected systems by accessing normally inaccessible memory areas with just one instruction. These areas include the Platform Security Processor (PSP), System Management Mode (SMM), and microcode patch RAM.
Affected Processors and Requirements
The Skitter exploit impacts AMD chips from the 15h and 16h families, which were produced roughly between 2011 and 2015. This includes FX-series desktop chips, some Opterons, and low-power Jaguar- and Puma-based SoCs found in devices like the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. To execute the exploit, an attacker must first obtain kernel-level access to the machine, which means they can run their own drivers.
Mechanism of the Exploit
The exploit leverages a CPU setting called BankSwizzleMode (Swizzle), which controls how the processor's RAM controller handles memory interleaving. In the affected chip families, this setting is accessible to the operating system. By toggling Swizzle, the exploit can disable memory mapping, exposing the entire DRAM to the attacker once kernel-level access is achieved.
AMD's Stance
AMD has issued a security bulletin regarding this matter. The company stated that the affected chips are no longer under security support. Additionally, AMD noted that the prerequisite of kernel-level access implies an attacker already has significant control over the machine, mitigating the immediate threat posed by this specific exploit.
✨ This summary was generated by AI from the outlets' reporting listed below. It is not independently verified and may contain errors — check the original sources. How BrevFeed works →
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Reporting from
A new exploit named Skitter Creek Bath Salts (Skitter) allows access to protected memory areas on AMD CPUs from the 15h and 16h families (2011-2015) using a single instruction. This exploit grants full hardware-level control, including access to the Platform Security Processor and System Management Mode, but requires kernel-level access to the affected machine.