According to researchers, this kind of backdoor would work like a capacitor and be easily hidden, embedded among a chip’s countless other components. “Old techniques like visual inspection or current and temperature tracking won’t have a chance of detecting such flaws.”

…code can be hidden inside a JavaScript file on a website you visit, inside a ping your computer receives via the Internet, inside a malicious software you installed yourself, or even malware that secretly infects your PC. This malicious code starts the capacitor’s loading process, and after a certain threshold is reached, can direct the system into switching into a privileged execution mode. Attackers can the run code on your device, PC, tablet, or smartphone, with system-level privileges. When the attacker stops the malicious code, the capacitor loses all charge, and the backdoor automatically closes itself.

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Source: [H]ardOCP – Researchers Develop Hardware-Level Backdoor In Computer Chips