---
id: 2053
title: "An accessible overview of Meltdown and Spectre, Part 1"
source_domain: blog.trailofbits.com
source_url: "https://blog.trailofbits.com/2018/01/30/an-accessible-overview-of-meltdown-and-spectre-part-1/"
published_at: "2018-01-30T12:50:39Z"
tags: ["cloud", "hardware-security", "meltdown", "spectre", "side-channel", "speculative-execution", "cpu", "computer-architecture", "cpu-vulnerabilities", "cache"]
phying_url: "https://phying.com/item/2053"
lang: en
---

# An accessible overview of Meltdown and Spectre, Part 1

## Summary

Part one of Trail of Bits' accessible Meltdown and Spectre overview explains the computer architecture basics—caching, speculative execution, branch prediction—behind the two CPU design flaws.

## Intelligence Metadata

- **Sources:** blog.trailofbits.com
- **Published:** 2018-01-30T12:50:39Z
- **Original:** https://blog.trailofbits.com/2018/01/30/an-accessible-overview-of-meltdown-and-spectre-part-1/
- **Phying News:** https://phying.com/item/2053