Slashdot Mirror


Nvidia GPUs Can Leak Data From Google Chrome's Incognito Mode (softpedia.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Nvidia GPUs don't clear out memory that was previously allocated, and neither does Chrome before releasing memory back to the shared memory pool. When a user recently fired up Diablo 3 several hours after closing an Incognito Mode window that contained pornography, the game launched with snapshots of the last "private" browsing session appearing on the screen — revealing his prior activities. He says, "It's a fairly easy bug to fix. A patch to the GPU drivers could ensure that buffers are always erased before giving them to the application. It's what an operating system does with the CPU RAM, and it makes sense to use the same rules with a GPU. Additionally, Google Chrome could erase their GPU resources before quitting."

2 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. Ads by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 4, Interesting

    > Google Chrome could erase their GPU resources before quitting.

    Why blank it when you can write a gaming ad to the buffer instead? #incentives

    Why write a gaming ad when you can write a Radeon ad instead? #alsoincentives

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  2. Not just PornMode by crow · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I use "incognito mode" all the time. Anytime I see some interesting link on Facebook, I always open it in incognito mode. Just one more level of protection against associating the link with my account or leaving behind unwanted trash.

    I also find it very useful for news sites that let you have a certain number of articles free before throwing up a paywall. Using incognito mode resets the counter back to zero.