Apple is the latest CPU vendor being affected by side-channel attacks. All Mac laptops since 2022, all Mac desktops since 2023, and all iPhones / iPad Pro / iPad Air / iPad Mini models since 2021 are affected by these new SLAP and FLOP attacks.

Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have presented two whitepapers on Data Speculation Attacks viaLoad Address Prediction on Apple Silicon (SLAP) and Breaking the Apple M3 CPU via False Load Output Predictions (FLOP).

These Apple CPU flaws stem from faulty speculative execution and have the potential of putting web browsers at risk via malicious JavaScript or WebAssembly. So far Apple has yet to mitigate these issues even with being disclosed to the company last year.

Those wanting to learn more about these new Apple CPU side-channel attacks can do so via the FLOP and SLAP whitepapers on predictors.fail .