How to Make a Group FaceTime Call on iOS 12

Apple in iOS 12 introduced a long-awaited Group FaceTime feature that’s designed to let you chat with up to 32 people at one time, using a unique tiled interface that’s new to FaceTime.

Group FaceTime is relatively easy to use, but it may not be immediately obvious how a call is initiated nor how all of the group chat options work, which is why we’ve taken an in-depth look at the new feature.

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Placing a Call

There are two ways to initiate a Group FaceTime call, using the FaceTime app or the Messages app.

FaceTime App

Open up the FaceTime app
Tap on the “+” button in the upper right hand corner.
In the “To” field, type a name and tap it.
Type another name.
Continue typing in all of the names of the participants who you want to chat with.
When ready to place the call, tap on either the audio or the video option and participants will receive a popup letting them know that you want to FaceTime with them.

Messages App

Open up an existing multi-person conversation or create a new iMessage chat thread.
At the top, where the names of the chat participants are listed, tap to bring up a menu bar.
Choose the “FaceTime” option to transition from a text-based conversation to a video or audio call.
The Messages FaceTime interface works with just one person or with a group of people, and it’s perhaps the easiest way to initiate a multi-person FaceTime call.

Receiving an Incoming Call Request

When a Group FaceTime chat is initiated either via FaceTime or through the Messages app, you will get a notification letting you know that a FaceTime call is initiating, which you can tap to join.

Joining an Existing Group FaceTime Call

When you’re in a group chat in the Messages app and someone initiates a Group FaceTime conversation, any person in the chat can join the call at anytime.

In the Messages interface, there’s a chat popup that lets you know a call is ongoing, with a “Join” button available and the number of people active in the conversation.

Joining a conversation is as simple as tapping that “Join” button, which automatically adds you to the call. There’s no approval interface, so be aware that if you’re in the middle of a conversation, anyone from a group Messages chat can interrupt and join in.

While in a Group FaceTime call, you’ll also see a chat bubble that lets you know how long the call has been going on.

Adding Another Person Through FaceTime

While in a FaceTime call, you can easily add another person to the chat.

In an active call, tap on the icon that features three dots.
Tap on “Add Person.”
Choose a name from the list to send them a notification to join in.

Leaving a Group FaceTime Call

As with a standard FaceTime call, exiting a Group FaceTime chat is as simple as tapping the big red “X” button to end the chat.

Focusing on Chat Members

All Group FaceTime calls are displayed with a tiled interface that highlights the person who last spoke. If you have a call with multiple people, you’ll see tiles of various sizes focusing on main participants, with those who haven’t spoken recently minimized in small tiles.

You can double tap on any person’s tile to make it the focal point in your FaceTime view, enlarging the tile to its biggest possible size. Tap again to go back to the standard tiled view.

Applying Effects

In addition to multi-person FaceTime calls, iOS 12 adds a new FaceTime effects camera that you can use while chatting. While in a FaceTime call, tap on the star-shaped icon to the left of the end call button to access options that include Animoji and Memoji, filters, stickers, shapes, and text.

Multiple effects can be applied at once, which are displayed to all chat participants. The people you’re chatting with can also choose different effects to use, leading to chats filled with different Memoji and Animoji characters.

Memoji and Animoji are limited to devices with the TrueDepth camera system.

We did a detailed how to on the Effects camera in the Messages app, and it’s essentially the same for FaceTime, so make sure to check that out for additional details on how to use this new feature.

Beta Limitations

During the iOS 12 beta testing period, Group FaceTime is limited to the iPhone 6s, iPhone SE, iPad mini 4, iPad Air 2, and later devices.

On the iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, and iPad Air, audio is the only available option for Group FaceTime, with video unavailable.

The Camera Effects feature in FaceTime is available on iPhone 7 or later and is not available on iPad during the beta.

Related Roundup: iOS 12
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Google’s updated events search feature will keep your boredom at bay

Here to ensure you’re never bored this summer is Google, which has rolled out new and improved ways to search for events in your neck of the woods.

After introducing a card interface for event-related searches last year, the internet giant is ramping up its techniques yet again, simplifying your hunt for the perfect way to fill your free time. Now you’ll be able to find information such as time, location, and ticket pricing, and Google is also serving up a new way to discover events that you might otherwise be unaware of.

If you conduct a search for say, “event near me” or “free concert,” Google will present you with a list of events from a wide range of sites, as well as key information about that event, straight from the search page. Really, that just means less clicking on links, and more information presented at once.

You can then tap any event that piques your interest, and you’ll see relevant details like time, location, ticketing  providers, and other information that Google says “will help you decide whether to attend.” If you decide the answer is “yes,” you can follow the links to buy tickets from a number of different purveyors (Google seems to be emphasizing that this isn’t all Google-run, and that third-party sellers are indeed being included). Additionally, you can share and save events if you’re looking to create an itinerary with friends, or are just weighing your options.

Moreover, Google is also promising to help folks find events based on their interests. “While browsing events, you can tap the “For You” tab to get personalized ideas for things to do near you,” Google notes in a blog post. “You’ll also see trending and popular events in your area to keep you in the loop on the hottest happenings.” These events can range from meetups to concerts to individual events hosted by various organizations and brands that you’ve indicated an interest in. Listings are said to be updated often, so you’re always looking at the most updated menu of options available.

Google will be rolling out these new features over the next few days, and for the time being, they’re only available to users in the United States.

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• Google Home Mini review

Mars is as near to Earth as it’s been in 15 years, so Hubble took some photos

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NASA, ESA, A. Simon (GSFC) and the OPAL Team, and J. DePasquale (STScI)

NASA, ESA, and STScI

NASA, ESA, and STScI

For the past 28 years, the Hubble Space Telescope has captured some of the most iconic images of outer space. Now, as Mars and Saturn swing by Earth this summer, the legendary telescope has snapped a handful of beautiful images to add to the collection.

Although millions of miles away from Earth, the orbits of Mars and Saturn brought the planets relatively close this summer. Known as “opposition” — because we see the planets rise in the east as the sun sets in the west — this event gave astronomers a unique chance to capture detailed images of the planets, thanks to their proximity and full illumination from the sun.

Saturn orbited some 870 million miles away, while in opposition to Earth on June 27. A few weeks earlier, Hubble captured images of the planet’s six moons — Dione, Enceladus, Tethys, Janus, Epimetheus, and Mimas — appearing like specs in the sky. At the ringed-planet’s north pole, Hubble identified a hexagonal pattern first spotted 37 years ago during a flyby from Voyager 1.

NASA, ESA, and STScI

Just under two weeks before Mars reaches it’s closest approach to Earth in 15 years (around 36 million miles on July 27), Hubble captured a dense and massive dust storm enshrouding the red planet. The persistent storm has lasted for more than four months, which has caused trouble for the solar-powered Mars Opportunity rover. During the storm, NASA has been unable to connect with the rover. The image above shows just how dense the storm is.

“Since the NASA/European Space Agancy Hubble Space Telescope was launched, its goal has always been to study not only distant astronomical objects, but also the planets within our solar system,” the space agencies wrote in a statement. “Hubble’s high-resolution images of our planetary neighbors can only be surpassed by pictures taken from spacecraft that actually visit these bodies. However, Hubble has one advantage over space probes: It can look at these objects periodically and observe them over much longer periods than any passing probe could.”

Hubble has proven to be a workhorse during it’s nearly three decades in operation, while it’s successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, is fraught with delays and carries a hefty $9.66 billion price tag. NASA recently announced the telescope won’t be ready until at least March 30, 2021.

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• Gaia’s awe-inspiring new ‘galactic census’ star map contains 1.7 billion stars
• NASA’s planet-hunting satellite sends back its first image — and it’s amazing

Facial recognition can help would-be moms find an egg donor who looks like them

For would-be parents who are unable to have children without medical assistance, one possible option is to use an egg donor. This method involves a donor anonymously giving her eggs to an infertile patient to help them give birth. But after undergoing the (sometimes tough) decision to have fertility treatment, hopeful-moms-to-be are faced with a second question: “Will my kid look like me?” Ovobank, a pioneering egg bank in Spain, has a high-tech answer to the conundrum — and it involves using facial recognition to match up patients to similar-looking donors.

“In Spain, where both [in vitro fertilizaation clinic] FIV Marbella and Ovobank are based, egg donation is anonymous, so the patient can’t choose the donor as it is done in some countries,” Dr. Enrique Criado Scholz, general director of the two companies, told Digital Trends. “It is the medical professionals that have the responsibility of finding a donor that matches the patient’s phenotypic characteristics.”

Until now, this process was achieved by looking at the patient’s phenotypical characteristics — referring to their height, hair color, eye color, and skin color. The facial matching part was then a subjective decision made based on the doctor’s choices. What Ovomatch offers instead is a facial-recognition matching algorithm, which allows the patient to find their idea donor by snapping a quick selfie through a mobile app.

“[Our app asks] the patient to take a selfie and [then] scans over 100 facial points, which it will then compare to the donors that already match that patient phenotypically,” Scholz said. “Ovomatch will then come up with the number of donors that not only match the patient’s phenotypic characteristics, but also have a close resemblance to her.”

After this process is carried out, the app sends out two reports: One to the collaborating IVF center so they can begin to program the treatment, and the other to Ovobank so that it can prepare the necessary paperwork related to the egg donation. Finally, Ovobank will get in contact with the collaboration center, and arrange shipment of the eggs.

“This service is already being rolled out internationally,” Scholz said. “It is available for download on both Android and iOS platforms.”

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World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth allied races guide

The latest expansion to World of Warcraft, Battle for Azeroth, is less than a month away. As is usually the case, a new expansion means a wealth of new content for players to explore, including new races. Here’s what you need to know about allied races, and how to obtain them.

Rather than add a single new race to each faction or a single neutral race, Blizzard has opted to create multiple allied races to join the Horde and Alliance. Appearance-wise, the majority of these races are re-skins of existing races, but Blizzard has added new textures, voice lines, and other customization options to help them stand out.

Each allied race can also earn a set of unique heritage armor. The armor is a transmog set which works for every class. To earn it, players will have to level an eligible character from 20 to 110 without using a character boost.

Allied races you can earn right now

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Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment

As of right now, there are eight confirmed Allied Races, though Blizzard has said that they are open to the idea of adding new allied races in future content patches or expansions. The Horde will have access to the Nightborne, Highmountain Tauren, Mag’har orcs, and Zandalari trolls. The Alliance will be able to recruit Lightforged Draenei, Void Elves, Dark Iron dwarves, and humans of Kul’Tiras.

Currently, four of these races are available for players to unlock once they’ve purchased Battle for Azeroth. The Dark Iron dwarves and Mag’har orcs are expected to be unlocked upon the launch of Battle for Azeroth with Kul’Tiran humans and Zandalari trolls coming at a later date.

Nightborne

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Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment

Formally known as the Shal’dorei, the Nightborne have spent the past 10,000 years of Azeroth’s history hiding under the domed city of Suramar. With the return of the Burning Legion, these formerly reclusive elves found themselves forced to take a more active role in the world, eventually allying themselves with the Horde.

Unlocking the Nightborne is a fairly straight-forward process and, if you’ve been playing Legion, you’ve probably done most of the work. For starters, you’ll need to complete the main Nightborne storyline in Legion in order to unlock the “Insurrection” achievement. Completing these quests will go a long way towards earning you the Exalted reputation you’ll need. If you’re not quite there, then you’ll need to grind out Surmar world quests, though it shouldn’t take too long.

From there, you’ll simply need to recruit them using a short quest chain which will explain why the Nightborn have chosen to join the Horde. This quest chain can be started in the Horde capital of Orgrimmar.

Playable classes:

• Hunter
• Mage
• Monk
• Priest
• Rogue
• Warlock
• Warrior

Highmountain Tauren

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Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment

Unsurprisingly, the Tauren of Highmountain have chosen to join their cousins in the Horde. In order to unlock the Highmountain Tauren, you’ll need to have completed the main Highmountain storyline which, if you’ve leveled through Legion, is probably already finished. You’ll also need to earn exalted with the Highmountain Tauren. The majority of this reputation will come from completing the main storyline and the rest can be earned from doing world quests in Highmountain.

Once you’ve finished those two steps, it’s a simple matter of picking up the quest chain in Orgrimmar, which will see you recruiting the Highmountain into the Horde.

Playable classes:

• Druid
• Hunter
• Monk
• Shaman
• Warrior

Void Elves

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Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment

Probably the closest we’ll ever come to seeing playable High Elves, the Void Elves are former Blood Elves who were exiled from Silvermoon for studying the magic of the Void. Upon being discovered by Alleria Windrunner, they pledged their allegiance to the Alliance.

Unfortunately, unlocking the Void Elves can be bit more time consuming than their Horde counterparts. For starters, you’ll need to complete the Argus storylines which will grant you the achievement “You Are Now Prepared.” By itself, that quest chain may only take an afternoon. Unfortunately, you’ll also need to earn exalted status with the Argussian Reach, which can take quite some time. The problem with this grind is that it is time-gated. You can only earn a certain amount per-day meaning it may take a couple of weeks to earn exalted.

Once you have finished those two requirements, you can pick up a quest in the Alliance capital of Stormwind, which will allow you to recruit the Void Elves.

Playable classes:

• Hunter
• Mage
• Monk
• Priest
• Rogue
• Warlock
• Warrior

Lightforged Dranei

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Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment

WoW players are likely very familiar with the Dranei that crashed to Azeroth during the Burning Crusade expansion and, for years, we assumed that was the only sect of Eradar that had not joined the Burning Legion. However, Legion showed us a new group of Dranei known as the Lightforged. These holy warriors have spent the past 10,000 years batting the Buring Legion. Now, they’re taking the fight to the Horde.

Unlocking the Lightforged will require you to complete the aforementioned Argus storylines and earn the “You Are Now Prepared” achievement. In addition, you’ll have to earn exalted status with the Army of Light. As with the Argussian Reach, this one could take a couple of weeks, as it is time-gated. However, the main story quests should help you reach at least Friendly status with the Army of Light.

Once those requirements are met, the quest to recruit the Lightforged will be available in the Alliance capital of Stormwind.

Playable classes:

• Hunter
• Mage
• Paladin
• Priest
• Warrior

You can now search the Apple Store app using your voice

Need to find something on the Apple Store app? Apple is making that a bit easier for you. The app has been updated to version 5.1, and finally, is beginning to look more like the App Store and iTunes Store. The new search interface displays trending searches if you’re not entirely sure of what you’re looking for, and also has a new microphone icon that, as you might suspect, lets you search via voice rather than text.

If you check out the Apple Store app — which you might use if you’re interested in seeing MacBooks, iPhones, or compatible accessories available for purchase — you can now tap on the microphone button and simply say your keyword. From there, voice search will take you to the correct results page, making for a much more streamlined search process.

Moreover, the actual app interface has been revamped. In addition to the popular searches display, Apple is also now presenting its results in card format, making them much easier to read and understand.

As Apple describes, “Search has been updated with an enhanced design. And it’s now powered with speech recognition technology for better search results.” The tech giant continues, “With a fresh look and the addition of speech recognition technology, it’s never been easier to find products, stores, sessions, and more.”

Moreover, Apple has also made updates to its Worldwide Developers Conference app for iOS, promising bug fixes and performance improvements. There are also new sorting options available on the Apple TV. Apple wrote in its update notes, “Thank you for your feedback. This update includes bug fixes and improvements in several areas, including accessibility, stability, and video downloads. In addition, videos can be viewed by collection and platform on tvOS.”

Of course, neither of these two apps are quite as popular as Apple’s App Store. Earlier this month, the App Store celebrated its 10th anniversary, and the Wall Street Journal published an interview with late Apple CEO Steve Jobs that was held following the App Store’s launch ain 2008. At the time, the executive noted that he was surprised by its success, saying that he had not expected the App Store to “be this big.”

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Motorola One Power: News, rumors, specs, and more

Android Headlines

Sure, we’ve all come to know and love Motorola’s extensive lineup of budget phones. But Motorola makes some pretty awesome midrange smartphones as well. And it looks like we’re about to see its next phone, the Motorola One Power, very soon.

Here’s everything we know about the upcoming Motorola One Power.

Design and display

Techinfobit

For the most part, Motorola’s lineup of 2018 phones have all had a similar design language. Will the Motorola One Power continue the trend?

If leaked photos of the One Power are to be believed, it appears it will follow the design language of its 2018 siblings. The phone appears to have a glass-over-aluminum frame. On the back, you’ll find a dual camera module that is vertically stacked on the left side of the phone. A Motorola logo, that we believe will be the fingerprint sensor, sits in the middle.

The Motorola One Power will feature a 6.2 inch screen with a resolution of 2,246 x 1,080. Bezels are minimized on the phone, but we certainly wouldn’t call it bezel-less.  And yes, you’ll find a top notch housing the speaker and front-facing camera on the One Power.

Specs and battery

According to a recent TENAA certification, it looks like the upcoming Motorola One Power will be a very capable midrange phone. It appears to have a Snapdragon 636 processor, though we can’t be certain since the certification only states the phone has a 1.8HGz clock speed.

As for RAM and storage, it looks like buyers will have several options. There will apparently be 3GB, 4BG, and 6GB RAM options alongside 32GB and 64GB storage options. It also looks like the phone will have a microSD slot allowing you to add up to 128GB of external storage.

So why is this phone called the Motorola One Power? Well, it looks like One Power refers to the massive 4,850mAh battery. Such a huge battery means the One Power will most certainly make it through a full day of use for even the most demanding smartphone users.

Software and special features

The next Motorola flagship will feature Android 8.1 Oreo. We believe it will also be part of the Android One program. Android One handsets receive frequent security and OS updates and feature a minimum of bloatware.  While there’s no word if the phone will receive the Android P update, we are confident it will since Motorola has a good track record of updating its phones.

In addition to being part of Android One, we also anticipate the phone will feature the usual Motorola applications such as Moto Voice, a voice activated digital assistant for Moto phones. It’s likely we’ll also see Moto Actions, which allow you to use different gestures to initiate certain actions on your phone.

Camera

Portrait mode, anyone? It looks like the upcoming Motorola One Power will feature a rear camera module with dual lenses.  According to the TENAA spec sheet, the phone will feature a 16-megapixel primary lens alongside a 5-megapixel secondary lens. On the front, you’ll find an 8-megapixel selfie shooter.

Release date and price

techinfobit

Since the Motorola One Power has not been announced, we don’t have pricing and availability information just yet.  We believe it may be announced on Thursday, August 2, since Motorola has an event scheduled for that day.

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This myth-inspired, karate-chopping centaur robot could save your life one day

In Greek mythology, a centaur is a creature with the upper body of a human, and lower body and legs of a horse. In Italy’s IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Centauro is a 5-foot-tall robot that boasts an anthropomorphic upper body and four-legged base. Capable of operating for 2.5 hours at a clip, the 200-pound robot is designed for maneuvering over rugged terrain and carrying out manipulations requiring high strength. Its goal? To serve as the ultimate disaster response robot.

“Despite being a research project, Centauro was developed looking closely to applications,” Nikos Tsagarakis, one of the researchers who worked on the project, told Digital Trends. “The target application is to use it to assist emergency responders. But the versatility of the robot mobility and manipulation make it suitable for a variety of application domains. [These include] as a co-worker collaborative robot in mixed human-robot industrial production lines, logistics operations, and maintenance of remote or hostile facilities and infrastructures. It can be also exploited by other security forces, such as for inspection tasks or bomb disposal.”

While the mythological form factor might look somewhat fanciful, Tsagarakis noted that the robot was made to do more than simply grab people’s attention. “Centauro was designed with the inspiration and objective to match human strength, power, and physical sturdiness to execute heavy, high-impact physical interactions,” he said. “At the same time, [we wanted] to demonstrate motion agility close to that of human.”

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The humanoid-style upper body gives Centauro the ability to carry out human-like dexterity or strength tasks using its manipulation arms. (Including, as seen in the top video, a mean karate chop!) Meanwhile, its four-legged base gives it more stability for locomotion. These legs incorporate six degrees of freedom and allow the robot to rotate and extend its hip, knees, and ankles. At the bottom of each leg is a wheel module, which serves as a rolling “hoof” to keep with the centaur theme.

This isn’t the first innovative robot project Tsagarakis has been involved with. Previously, we wrote about the Walk-Man project, a European Commission-funded humanoid robot that’s designed to serve as a robot emergency responder which could be used to assist firefighters.

“The next generation of the [Centaur] robot will contain holistic upgrades both in the hardware and software of the system,” Tsagarakis said. “Having seen the potential of the robot capabilities and versatility, our effort will be placed on the industrialization of the robot hardware and the further development of our software. This will incorporate effective human-robot interfaces, application specific software tools, and utilities to facilitate the robot control taking into account the end-user perspectives.”

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23andMe wants to do more than showcase your family tree

23andMe will soon be doing a lot more with your DNA than providing a family tree. The home genetics company has teamed up with pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) with hopes of designing new drugs that could treat diseases like Parkinson’s, among others. Given 23andMe’s substantial genetic database provided by its 5 million customers, the company hopes that a partnership with GSK could provide the necessary data to develop effective therapies.

“Since the inception of 23andMe, our mission has been to help people access, understand and benefit from the human genome,” Anne Wojcicki, the company’s CEO and co-founder, said in a statement. “Today, I am thrilled to announce that we are launching a collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline to accelerate our ability to make those novel treatments and cures a reality.”

This collaboration marks the largest such effort to date in the home genetics testing space and hopes to leverage the bevy of data that companies like 23andMe and Ancestry.com have collected thanks to mail-in saliva tests. 23andMe is by far the most popular of these kits, which means it likely has the most to offer a pharmaceutical partner.

23andMe has said that they will ask customers whether or not they would like to participate in research before using their data, ensuring that adequate consent is attained in the process. “As always, if our customers do not want to participate in research, they can choose to opt out at any time,” Wojcicki wrote.

This isn’t the first time that 23andMe has attempted to utilize its genetic data for scientific purposes. As Wojcicki noted, the research team at the company has published more than 100 scientific papers, and in 2015, the team launched 23andMe Therapeutics “to develop novel treatments and cures based on genetic insights from the consented 23andMe community.” Of course, with the help of GSK, these treatments and cures are likely to go much further.

GSK has made a $300 million investment in 23andMe and as part of the partnership, the pharmaceutical giant will maintain exclusive rights to collaborate with 23andMe in order to develop drugs. “By working with GSK, we believe we will accelerate the development of breakthroughs,” Wojcicki said. “Our genetic research — powered by millions of customers who have agreed to contribute — combined with GSK’s expertise in drug discovery and development, gives us the best chance for success.”

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• Did Tidal really fake Kanye and Beyoncé’s streaming numbers?

New Spectre attack lets hackers steal data without having to run local code on PCs

A recent white paper released by researchers at the Graz University of Technology in Austria reveals a new attack called NetSpectre. Unlike the internet-based Spectre attack that requires a hacker to run code locally on the target PC, this version can steal data from the target PC’s memory without running any local code.

The base method of attack is nothing new. It’s based on how a CPU speculates where its current processing path will go. A chunk of its speed stems from how it can think ahead and test different routes (branches) to determine the quickest avenue to completion. While it’s testing these routes, the chip stores data in its local cache in an unprotected way.

Unfortunately, this is a problem that resides in all modern processors. In most cases, data can only be stolen if a hacker has physical access to the target PC to run malicious code. Hackers can also attack PCs remotely by running malicious JavaScript on their websites that you download as browser cache.

But with NetSpectre, there’s nothing to download. Instead, the attacker bombards the network ports of a target PC with malicious code. The good news is that this method takes an extremely long time to extract data from memory due to the noisy environment of the internet. For instance, one method directly targets the CPU’s cache at 15 bits per hour while another method targets a specific module (AVX2) at 60 bits per hour.

Of course, hackers don’t want everything stored in memory: They want the juicy bits. In addition to the slow data leak, they must sift through the garbage to pull out valuable, privileged items. Finding an encryption key in the slow data flow could take days versus accessing the same key by running malicious code locally on the target PC.

According to the paper, the NetSpectre attack consists of two components. The first is a leak gadget that pulls one or multiple bytes of data from memory, although single-bit gadgets are “most versatile.” The second component is the transmit gadget that makes the CPU’s state visible over the network, so the hacker can retrieve the data.

Hackers carry out the attack in four stages. First, they send the leak gadget to “mis-train” the processor’s predictive capability and then reset the environment to enable the encoding of leaked bits. After that, hackers exploit the Spectre Variant 1 vulnerability to leak data and use the transmit gadget to deliver the goods.

“As the network latency varies, the four steps have to be repeated multiple times to eliminate the noise caused by these fluctuations,” the report states. “Typically, the variance in latency follows a certain distribution depending on multiple factors, such as distance, number of hops, network congestion.”

But don’t worry: This isn’t a vulnerability that requires a new patch. Everything released for Meltdown and Spectre should protect your data from this new method. It’s also not in active use, but you should still make sure your PCs are armed with the latest Meltdown and Spectre updates.

Editors’ Recommendations

• How Chrome and other browsers came together to protect you from Spectre
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• The sound of destruction: Malicious video, audio files could attack laptops