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Security flaws discovered in Intel/AMD/ARM CPUs

Tsutarja

Tsutarja

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And this affects chipsets as old as 20 years!

https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/cpu-security-flaw-intel-pcs-macs

Basically, a flaw has been discovered that could allow hackers to remotely access devices and passwords among other viable assets to computer and mobile device users.

On top of this, Intel's CEO sold off $24 million worth of stock from the company prior to the revelation.

Microsoft has issued emergency patches for its supported family of operating systems, and I am certain that firmware patches are soon to follow from the chipset manufacturers.
 
Sawsbuck

Sawsbuck

used Jump Kick! It's super effective!
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Incineroar said:
Honestly, unless someone can put a program on your computer that attacks this specific bug, you're probably safe in not getting the fix, but MS will issue it through Windows Update for sure, and it's better to be safe than sorry in this case. You wouldn't want passwords being leaked, would you?
Click to expand...

True but I don't want my already slow computer to become even slower
 
Tsutarja

Tsutarja

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Incineroar said:
Makes me wonder if MS will issue patches for this issue for XP, as the Wannacry ransomware patch was also made for XP. This is quite a serious bug and with companies still using XP Embedded, it could be a very serious issue.
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I agree - this is far too much of a risk to not get out to Window Vista and Windows XP. Possibly even riskier than Wannacry, which those two non-supported operating systems saw patches for after EOL.

TheUncreativeSawsbuckFan said:
True but I don't want my already slow computer to become even slower
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Specs? If you don't post your specs I cannot even tell you whether or not your computer is slow or not. CPU performance isn't the sole reason why your computer is "slow,"
 
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Venia Silente

Venia Silente

Inspectious. Good for napping.
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It's notable that a lot of security flaws have been being discovered in Intel ever since the great QA Specialists migration in 2014, when retirement packages were suddenly being sold in batches because QA engineers were sure they were going to be "replaced", thanks in part to an Intel memo that was apparently misread as "you release new processors fast or else".

The current knowledge I have of these matters is that the patches do not involve CPU speed by itself, rather they involve what is known as "context switch" across tasks that are being predicted by the processor; as such, how much slowness a machine will see from the batches will largely depend on the variance in the tasks the various processess running in experience. Would figure out the big losers in this will be database engines and virtualization - meaning everything "cloud". About time, if you ask me.

For those of us running Debian or a derivative: at the time of this writing the patch for the kernel is already available in Stretch (stable)'s Security Updates. The bug tracker on the issue is worth monitoring.

On a more general Linux note: Contrary to Intel (and apparently Google)'s expectations, the patch will only induce performance loss on Intel processors, rather than on everything running x86 such as AMD, at least until further notice. Linus Torvalds himself had some nice words to Intel regarding this issue, as they wanted "everyone to suffer like them".
 
Arsenic

Arsenic

[div=font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Kaushan script
3,201
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Still buying a new intel CPU. Not worried in the least.

Shit like this happens and I choose not to believe it's done on purpose with malicious intent.
 
Raffy98

Raffy98

[color=#2d9bce][b][span="font-family: 'century got
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Incineroar said:
(And from what I read, some Intel Atom processors don't have it either, and those are newer processors).
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Pre 2013 Intel Atom and Itanium processors are not affected by the Meltdown exploit. However, it seems like the Spectre exploit affects almost every piece of electronics in the world and it will much harder to counter.
 
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