Intel releases stable Spectre updates for Skylake

And I will never go to AMD side due to my prejudice toward poor AMD chipsets (and drivers).

 

hide man hide, there gona come for you...


As for this debacle I been wating from updated microcodes from asrock since the debacle went public and I still waiting, I think it will be another month before those codes surface. last update from was from jan 24th as far asrock goes, and most they had updated were removed after the reboot issue was.

Still think they handle this poorly and are continue to do so. 90% of public will remain un patched and not secure from this less the updates needed are made available to threw the OS.

 

Hmm I am surprised by this because one would think they would start with the Newest released CPUs then go backwards from there to Skylake.

Also there are users that will not get the Microcode via a BIOS update because their PC hardware is too old such as the the 1st gen i5s and i7s. Plus I do not think that ASUS will release a new BIOS update with any new Microcode update for my 4790K because they have a cut off.

If Intel could make an updater for the Microcode just like what they did for the Management Engine it would make it alot easier on users who do not get a BIOS update or having issues with Updating their BIOS on their PCs just like I am having on my MSI gaming Laptop.

 

"if" intel and rest cpu makes would yes it would be alot easier but i dont seem them doing there all relying on "someone" else to do it for them

 

AMD is about to release there new CPU, you can't tell me its patched! Its a brand new platform, already with a black eye(there gonna sell it anyway)? Then patch it latter? Kinda sick of it all........

 

Yeah all the OEM manufacturer of the prebuilt PC or Laptop needs to do is link to the updater file just like they did with the Management Engine and all the Motherboard manufacturer is the same thing as the OEM manufacturer to make it easier on the customer.

AMD did say their new CPUs will be protected from the vulnerabilities out of the box.

 

"Lots of critical, remote execution patches coming from Microsoft next Tuesday"
https://twitter.com/briankrebs/status/962013886584053760

 

They also said they were unaffected by Spectre(on existing CPU'S) , but that was a lie. Unless they just started making these which they haven't then guess what.....................

 

Microsoft update for microcodes (finally) for Skylake H/S and Skylake U/Y & Skylake U23e
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4090007/intel-microcode-updates

 

That's interesting, it says there that microcode updates are included within the update - but I thought microcode could only be updated through the BIOS, I knew we had to wait for an updated BIOS from our motherboard manufacturer, but the wording suggests the updated microcode is included in this Windows Update, is that right?

 

OS can have MCUs run at boot phase for bug fixes.

The microcode provided by windows update overrides the BIOS one at a software level.

 

Microcode is just loaded into CPU either by BIOS and/or by OS. Also there is driver belonging to VMware team which does the same thing - checks in container file with microcodes (published by Intel for Linux OSs) and loads newer one from this file to CPU. But unfortunately this VMware driver is loaded too late for Windows to detect Meltdown/Spectre updates in microcode in CPU.

 

You guys understand these patches are just smoke and mirrors, right? These CPU's are compromised, period end. No amount of patches will stop this on current cpu's. The architecture needs to be completely revamped. The patches are an illusion of security. Don't waste your time.

 

OK, cool. I might well do an image of my OS partition using Macrium Reflect as a precaution if it goes wrong & then run the Windows update to see how it goes. I'm thinking implementation through an upgraded BIOS would be best option though, but no new BIOS out for my MSI Z170A motherboard yet. Do you know if I can uninstall the Windows update (if a new BIOS come out), I'd just uinstall it in the normal way right by accessing the update page through the windows update section of Windows 10?

Yep, I know about that VMWare option, I've loaded the previous latest microcode using that option for my 6700K - microcode BA. (I'd better remember to uninstall that first before I apply that new microcode we're talking about).

 

If you have deep knowledge on the subject please share it with us in more details.

 

Meltdown is a hardware flaw that allows programs to see what the OS is doing. Spectre is a hardware flaw that allows programs to see what other programs are doing. Both of those things are supposed to be restricted.

Intel CPUs 'predict' what memory it will need to read in advance, which is not necessarily correct, but could allow access to it. For now, the fixes for this are going to be software updates. As in, Microsoft is releasing a patch that you can install (or not) to prevent it. But the bugs are at the hardware level, which isn't changing...yet.

https://meltdownattack.com/

 

Don`t know about AMD but Intel created CPU instructions (contained in microcode) to use to prevent programs to see what other programs do. It is costly solution so for example Linux developers/architectors prefer to utilise SW solution named "retpoline" instead. So in my eyes microcode updates paired with Windows patches do protect against Spectre.