This Morpheus processor is constantly changing its microarchitecture to block cyber attacks

Many hackers exploit software flaws to break into a system. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to write a perfect program without the slightest bug. That’s why researchers have taken a new approach to prevent hackers from exploiting them.

Two University of Michigan researchers, Todd Austin and Lauren Biernacki, presented a new processor called Morpheus in an article published in The Conversation. Hold on tight, this processor would be almost impossible to hack.

Morpheus processor has already defeated more than 500 cybersecurity experts

To exploit a software flaw, hackers must know the microarchitecture of the processor in order to manipulate pointers, inject code, and launch attacks through an auxiliary channel. However, Morpheus does not give them time as its microarchitecture changes several times per second.

In fact, Darpa, the US Department of Defense research agency, sponsored a program in which 525 cybersecurity researchers spent three months trying to hack Morpheus. Without success.

This processor effectively changes its microarchitecture randomly, thus creating a kind of puzzle that does not affect the software running on the computer. So while Morpheus doesn’t fix software flaws, it prevents hackers from exploiting them.