Apple Silicon is extra prone to stolen information thanks to some yet-unpatched speculative execution attacks.

SLAP and FLOP build on Spectre, the 2018 microarchitecture attack that abused CPU speculation, in which processors try to accelerate operations by predicting the flow of execution through program code. By speculatively computing possible branches in logic in advance and discarding paths that aren't needed, CPUs can run applications faster.

Speculative execution in Apple Silicon chips like the M2, M3, A15, and A17 boosts performance but also introduces vulnerabilities. Researchers have identified security flaws, SLAP and FLOP, allowing hackers to access sensitive information.

Two new data-hacking threats have been revealed, impacting Apple iPhones, iPads and Macs since as long ago as 2021—here’s what you need to know about FLOP and SLAP.