• Ever thought it'd be cool to have your art, writing, or challenge runs featured on PokéCommunity? Click here for info - we'd love to spotlight your work!
  • Dawn, Gloria, Juliana, or Summer - which Pokémon protagonist is your favorite? Let us know by voting in our poll!
  • Welcome to PokéCommunity! Register now and join one of the best fan communities on the 'net to talk Pokémon and more! We are not affiliated with The Pokémon Company or Nintendo.
    Register

Security flaws discovered in Intel/AMD/ARM CPUs

Tsutarja

Tsutarja

  • Dice Poké Ball Great Ball Ultra Ball
    • 28,130
    Posts
    15
    Years
    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.
     
    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
     
    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.
    Click to expand...
    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
    Click to expand...
    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,"
     
    Last edited:
    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".
     
    TheUncreativeSawsbuckFan said:
    Trying to play games and stuff it often freezes up or lags a lot
    8 GB of RAM
    Click to expand...
    Freezing and lagging is a definitive sign of a dying hard drive, and you might want to consider getting it replaced before it crashes. Your video card is most definitely not suitable for gaming, either.
     
    Incineroar said:
    (And from what I read, some Intel Atom processors don't have it either, and those are newer processors).
    Click to expand...

    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.
     
    You must log in or register to reply here.
    Back
    Top