CVE-2024-28956 is a medium-severity information disclosure vulnerability affecting certain Intel(R) processors. The flaw arises from the exposure of sensitive information through shared microarchitectural structures during transient execution, a class of speculative execution side-channel attacks. Specifically, an authenticated local user with low privileges (PR:L) can potentially exploit this vulnerability to leak sensitive data from the processor's internal buffers or caches. The attack vector requires local access and high attack complexity (AC:H), meaning it is not trivial to exploit and demands detailed knowledge and conditions. No user interaction is required (UI:N), and the vulnerability does not impact integrity or availability, focusing solely on confidentiality (VC:H). The vulnerability does not require elevated privileges beyond authenticated local access, and no network access is involved. The affected Intel processors and versions are not explicitly detailed here but are referenced in external advisories. No known exploits are currently in the wild, and no patches or mitigations are linked in the provided data. This vulnerability is part of the broader category of transient execution attacks, which leverage speculative execution features in modern CPUs to infer data from microarchitectural states that should be inaccessible. Such vulnerabilities have historically required complex attack setups but pose significant risks in multi-tenant environments or systems where local access cannot be fully restricted.

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2024-28956 primarily concerns confidentiality breaches in environments where multiple users share the same physical hardware, such as virtualized cloud infrastructures, data centers, and enterprise servers using Intel processors. Sensitive data processed on vulnerable CPUs could be exposed to unauthorized local users, potentially leading to leakage of intellectual property, personal data, or cryptographic keys. Although the attack requires local authenticated access and is complex to execute, insider threats or compromised low-privilege accounts could leverage this vulnerability to escalate data exposure. This risk is particularly relevant for sectors with stringent data protection requirements under GDPR, such as finance, healthcare, and government agencies. The absence of known exploits reduces immediate risk, but the medium severity and historical precedent of transient execution attacks warrant proactive mitigation. The vulnerability does not affect availability or integrity, so operational disruption is unlikely, but confidentiality loss could have regulatory and reputational consequences.

To mitigate CVE-2024-28956, European organizations should: 1) Identify and inventory Intel processors in use, focusing on those referenced in official advisories for this CVE. 2) Apply any available microcode updates or firmware patches released by Intel as soon as they become available, as these often address microarchitectural vulnerabilities. 3) Update operating systems and hypervisor software to incorporate vendor mitigations that limit speculative execution side channels, such as kernel page-table isolation (KPTI) or similar mechanisms. 4) Enforce strict access controls and monitoring to prevent unauthorized local access, including minimizing the number of users with local authenticated access to critical systems. 5) Employ hardware-based isolation techniques, such as Intel Software Guard Extensions (SGX) or virtualization security features, to compartmentalize sensitive workloads. 6) Monitor security advisories from Intel and relevant national cybersecurity agencies for updates on exploit developments and patches. 7) Conduct regular security audits and penetration tests simulating local attacker scenarios to assess the effectiveness of mitigations. These steps go beyond generic advice by emphasizing hardware inventory, microcode updates, and operational controls tailored to the nature of this vulnerability.