Chinese Loongson processors have leaky caches, researchers find

Chinese Loongson processors contain a cache vulnerability that allows attackers to extract sensitive data, even from within a guest virtual machine. Researchers discovered that the processor's cache hierarchy leaks information through timing variations, enabling side-channel attacks. This flaw affects Loongson's 3A5000 and 3B5000 chips, commonly used in Chinese government and military systems. The attack exploits the cache's behavior to infer cryptographic keys or other confidential data without requiring physical access. Loongson has acknowledged the issue and is working on mitigations, but no patch is yet available.