Apple’s M1 series of silicon processors not only exists in its Mac Minis and Macbooks but also resides on the company’s iPads as well. Thus, a cybersecurity vulnerability in the SoC could lead to many modern Apple products being affected if they were to be targeted by a malicious attack.

And after announcing the company’s new M2 silicon processors at Apple WWDC 2022, news broke out that the Apple M1 silicon has been compromised in the cybersecurity department. And as both MacWorld and 9to5Mac quoted MIT researchers, the newly discovered security flaw defeats the last line of security of the M1 SoC and cannot be patched via software updates.

The highly concerning security vulnerability in M1 is named “PACMAN” because it defeats the M1’s Pointer Authentication Code (PAC) system. 

MacWorld explains that pointer authentication is a security feature that helps protect the CPU against an attacker that has gained memory access. Pointers store memory addresses, and pointer authentication code checks for unexpected pointer changes caused by an attack. In its research, MIT CSAIL created “PACMAN,” an attack that can find the correct value to successfully pass pointer authentication, so a hacker can continue with access to the computer.

Macworld quotes an MIT article with MIT CSAIL’s Joseph Ravichandran, who is the co-lead author of a paper explaining PACMAN, “When pointer authentication was introduced, a whole category of bugs suddenly became a lot harder to use for attacks. With PACMAN making these bugs more serious, the overall attack surface could be a lot larger.”

According to MIT CSAIL, since its PACMAN attack involves a hardware device, a software patch won’t fix the problem. The issue is a wider problem with ARM processors that use Pointer Authentication, not just Apple’s M1. “Future CPU designers should take care to consider this attack when building the secure systems of tomorrow,” Ravichandran wrote. “Developers should take care to not solely rely on pointer authentication to protect their software.”

MIT was able to perform the PACMAN attack remotely. The team mentions that they actually did all their experiments over the network on a machine in another room, as they described “PACMAN works just fine remotely if you have unprivileged code execution.”

Macworld reports that Apple is aware of MIT CSAIL’s findings and issued the following statement: “We want to thank the researchers for their collaboration as this proof of concept advances our understanding of these techniques. Based on our analysis as well as the details shared with us by the researchers, we have concluded this issue does not pose an immediate risk to our users and is insufficient to bypass operating system security protections on its own.”

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(Via 1, Via 2)

The post MIT Discovers New Concerning Cybersecurity Flaw to Apple’s M1 Silicon – PACMAN appeared first on Gizmochina.

After the U.S. ban, Huawei decided to move its attention towards other hi-tech products different from smartphones, including laptops. After releasing a lot of interesting notebooks, the company came up with a new convertible laptop: the 2021 version of the Huawei MateBook E. It has been a long time since the Chinese giant released a 2-in-1 laptop and now this device lets Huawei compete directly with Microsoft and Apple. But does the Huawei MateBook E stand a chance against the best convertible laptops released by Microsoft and Apple? This comparison between Huawei MateBook E, Microsoft Surface Pro 8, and Apple iPad Pro M1 12.9 will help you to find out.

Huawei MateBook E 2021 vs Microsoft Surface Pro 8 vs Apple iPad Pro M1 12.9

Design

The design is definitely a key feature of these tablets. All of them are very thin, lightweight, and well-built. They also come with a very high screen to body ratio, thanks to narrow bezels around the display. The most amazing tablet in terms of build quality seems to be the Apple iPad Pro M1 with an incredibly thin body: just 6.4 mm. It is entirely made of aluminum with the exception of scratch-resistant and oleophobic front glass, and despite it having a wide display, it weighs just 682 grams.

Display

Besides providing the most attractive design, the Apple iPad Pro M1 is also equipped with the most advanced display. It is a Liquid Retina XDR with mini-LED backlighting, a 120 Hz refresh rate, HDR10 certification, and Dolby Vision. But unlike the Huawei MateBook E, it does not come with an OLED display, which means you can get deeper blacks with the Huawei tablet and brilliant colors, as well as 100 percent DCI-P3 coverage. Microsoft Surface Pro 8 and iPad Pro M1 rely on facial recognition for authentication, while the Huawei MateBook E has a fingerprint reader placed on the power key.

Hardware/Software

Apple iPad Pro M1 is the fastest and most reactive tablet thanks to the iPadOS operating system and the new Apple M1 processor. But all of these tablets are flagships, so you won’t notice a big difference. The Huawei MatePad E and the Microsoft Surface Pro 8 run Windows 11, which means you can use more professional software for productivity and more, and you can also play advanced PC games. Between Huawei MateBook E and Microsoft Surface Pro 8, the latter is superior due to a better processor and higher-end memory configurations including up to 32 GB of RAM and up to 1 TB of SSD internal storage.

Camera

If you are looking for the most advanced camera, then the iPad Pro M1 is your best choice. It has a 12 MP main camera, a 10 MP ultrawide sensor, and a TOF 3D LiDAR scanner for AR appliances, as well as a great 12 MP front camera. It is the only tablet of the trio to sport multiple cameras on the rear side and it has better sensors.

Battery

The battery life provided by the iPad Pro M1 is actually longer in a lot of scenarios thanks to iPadOS and the Apple M1 chip. With the Huawei MateBook E, you get a faster-charging technology with 65W power.

Price

The prices of these tablets vary depending on the market. The iPad Pro M1 costs €1200 in Europe, Microsoft Surface Pro 8 starts from $1099 in the U.S. and Huawei MateBook E starts from $940 in China, which is currently the only market in which it is available. If you do not mind the most advanced productivity software and gaming, then the iPad Pro M1 is actually a better tablet. But if an advanced OS like Windows 11 is important to you, then you should go for the Surface Pro 8. On the paper, the MateBook E is inferior to the Surface Pro 8, but it has a higher value for money.

• Read More: Huawei MateBook E 2-in-1 takes on the Microsoft Surface with 12.6-inch OLED display & Core i7

Huawei MateBook E 2021 vs Microsoft Surface Pro 8 vs Apple iPad Pro M1 12.9: PRO and CONS

Huawei MateBook E 2021

PROS

• OLED display
• Integrated with Huawei phones
• Wireless charging for the pen
• Thunderbolt 4
• 65W fast charging
• Interesting price

CONS

• Nothing particular

Microsoft Surface Pro 8

PROS

• Exceptional build quality
• Up to 32 GB of RAM
• Connected

CONS

• Price

Apple iPad Pro M1 12.9

PROS

• Awesome performance
• Awesome cameras
• LiDAR scanner
• Amazing mini LED display
• Very nice accessories
• eSIM

CONS

• Price

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