Yes, nearly every Intel chipset released after 2015, that is, in the past five years contains a vulnerability that could allow hackers to gain deep access to your computers. This particular issue was brought to light by the security firm Positive Technologies.

Essentially what's happening is that whenever you boot your computer that's running on Intel chipset, the security measures within the CPU's Converged Security and Management Engine (CSME) aren't being executed properly. These security measures are in place to lock down the computer's memory and prevent hackers from modifying it.

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According to the folks over at Positive Technologies, there's a brief moment between booting the computer and when protections within the CSME execute. That window is enough for hackers to execute a malicious code and get deep access to your computer.

That, however, isn't even the worst part. According to the folks over at Ars Technica, it looks like the flaw cannot be fixed with a firmware update because it's hard-coded into the silicon itself. Yeah, it's just as scary as it sounds.

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As scary as the vulnerability sounds, it's worth pointing out that exploiting it will require physical access to your computer. Also, it's not something that an average scammer can do. Exploiting a system through this vulnerability will require a significant amount of knowledge, and it's not something that can be done via a phishing link.

Long story short, you, as an average user, are probably safe and don't have to worry about this much. It looks like Intel is aware of this particular issue and it says that the users must keep their system up to date at all times. We'll definitely be reporting more on this as we hear from Intel.

Source: Positive Technologies

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