Unpatchable vulnerability in Apple chip leaks secret encryption keys

Academic researchers have disclosed GoFetch, an unpatchable side-channel vulnerability in Apple's M-series chips that can let attackers extract secret cryptographic keys from Macs. The flaw stems from the chips' data memory-dependent prefetcher, so it can only be mitigated in third-party cryptographic software, which may significantly degrade performance on M1 and M2 chips. According to the researchers, a GoFetch app without root access can extract a 2048-bit RSA key in under an hour when it runs on the same performance cluster as the targeted app.