Researchers have indicated that the Meltdown vulnerability is exclusive to Intel processors, while the Spectre vulnerability can possibly affect some Intel, AMD, and ARM processors. However, ARM announced that some of their processors were vulnerable to Meltdown.

Can computer hardware be hacked?

Hundreds of Millions of PC Components Still Have Hackable Firmware. ... That sort of firmware hacking could allow any malware that manages to run on a victim computer to take control of those components and exploit them for everything from intercepting a computer's network communications to spying through its webcam.

Can a hacker overheat a processor?

According to Nebel, it is technically possible to cause physical damage from malware if one has access to the right resources. ... Given enough money, malware can break hardware. Maybe not set it on fire, but it could cause it to overheat so the CPU needs to be replaced.