Intel failed to warn US government about Meltdown and Spectre flaws before going public
Intel is facing criticism from the US government after it was revealed that the company did not inform cyber security officials about the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities even though they had been known about for months.
Reports about the Meltdown and Spectre flaws were leaked by the Register, and it wasn't until this information hit the public domain that Intel decided to speak to US-CERT about the matter. The lack of communication from the chip-maker was revealed in a series of letters sent by technology firms to lawmakers this week.
Intel has a new Spectre firmware patch for you to try out
The Spectre/Meltdown debacle continues to rumble on, and now the chip manufacturer has announced the availability of a new "microcode solution" to the Spectre vulnerability. The updated firmware applies to 6th, 7th and 8th Generation Intel Core devices, and the release sees the company crossing its fingers and hoping that everything works out this time.
This is Intel's second attempt at patching the Spectre vulnerability, and this time around both the company and its customers will be praying that the fix for Skylake, Kaby Lake and Coffee Lake chips actually does the job.
Microsoft gives sysadmins Meltdown and Spectre detection in Windows Analytics
Microsoft has released an update to its free Windows Analytics tool, giving system administrators a new way to check for the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities.
The update not only makes it possible to see whether firmware patches are already installed or if they are needed, but also helps sysadmins to determine whether the patches are causing problems of their own. The checking tool is available for fully updated versions of Windows 7 through Windows 10.
Tests show how much Meltdown fixes will hit Linux system performance
Now that the initial shock about the Spectre and Meltdown chip vulnerabilities has died down, the focus is very much on getting the problems sorted. As has been noted already, there has been concern about the impact on performance that the bug fixes will bring.
Intel has been eager to downplay any suggestion of major slowdown, but the exact performance hit will vary from system to system depending on the tasks being performed. Brendan Gregg -- a Netflix engineer whose work involves large scale cloud computing performance -- has conducted some tests into the impact patches will have on Linux systems, concluding that "patches that workaround Meltdown introduce the largest kernel performance regressions I've ever seen."
Intel releases updated Spectre and Meltdown patches for Skylake systems
It may have been a while since there was major news about the Spectre and Meltdown bugs, but the problems have not gone away. After previously releasing unstable patches, Intel has now launched a microcode update for Skylake systems.
Despite the problems with both stability and performance with Spectre and Meltdown patches, Intel uses an announcement about the latest updates to stress the importance of installing patches in a timely fashion. There's more than a hint of irony in the fact that Intel had to tell users to stop using an earlier update because of the problems it was causing.
Microsoft issues emergency Windows update to disable Intel's shoddy Spectre variant 2 mitigation
The computer industry is in utter chaos right now. Despite a slight increase in PC sales for Q4 2018, the market is still extremely unhealthy. Not to mention, pretty much all existing hardware is fundamentally flawed thanks to both Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities. At least major companies such as Intel, AMD, and Microsoft are working together to mitigate these risks, right? Wrong. These patches have proven to be problematic -- for instance, some AMD computers were rendered unbootable. Ugh, what a failure.
To make matters even worse, Intel's Spectre variant 2 mitigation is causing instability (random reboots) on some Windows computers. Microsoft has apparently had enough of Intel's shoddy patches, and as a result, it has issued an emergency update to disable the Spectre variant 2 mitigation on Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10.
Intel will release chips free from Meltdown and Spectre bugs this year
The discovery of the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities in processors caused a great deal of panic and confusion. The poor reliability and performance hit brought about by patches did little to help consumer confidence, but Intel says it will be releasing processors in 2018 that are free from the problems.
The move will be welcomed by customers who have been frustrated by problematic bug fixes designed to mitigate against the bug but which brought issues of their own. A timescale for the hardware solution has not been pinned down more specifically than "later this year."
Businesses need a risk-based approach to tackle vulnerabilities like Meltdown
The recent Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities have been well documented, but for businesses it can be difficult to know which fixes to prioritize.
Software management and security specialist Flexera is announcing a set of recommendations to provide a standardized, risk-based approach to managing this type of vulnerability.
Intel tells customers to stop installing Meltdown/Spectre patches due to 'unpredictable' reboot issues
The fallout from the Meltdown and Spectre bugs continues to plague Intel. The company has been hit with lawsuits, users complained about performance drops, and some users found that their computers were rendered unbootable. For people with Broadwell and Haswell chips, there was a problem with random reboots, and as a result of this -- some two weeks down the line -- Intel is now advising people to stop installing its patches.
Executive vice president Navin Shenoy says that the company is close to determining the root cause of the problem, apologized for reboots and "unpredictable system behaviour," and warns that customers should stop deploying the current version of the patches until an update is produced.
KaOS 2018.01 KDE-focused Linux distro now available with Spectre and Meltdown fixes
It can be difficult to find a quality Linux distribution that meets your needs. This is partly because there are just too many operating systems from which to choose. My suggestion is to first find a desktop environment that you prefer, and then narrow down your distro search to one that focuses on that DE. For instance, if you like KDE, both Kubuntu and Netrunner are solid choices.
With all of that said, there is another KDE-focused Linux distro that I highly recommend. Called "KaOS," it is a rolling release, meaning you can always be confident that your computer is running modern packages. Today, KaOS gets its first updated ISO for 2018, and you should definitely use it to upgrade your install media. Why? Because version 2018.01 has fixes for Spectre and Meltdown thanks to Linux kernel 4.14.14 with both AMD and Intel ucode.
Intel: Meltdown and Spectre bugs also affect Ivy Bridge, Sandy Bridge, Skylake and Kaby Lake systems
In an update following the Meltdown and Spectre revelations, Intel has admitted that the problems also affect newer chips. The company had previously focused its attention -- and that of users -- on Broadwell and Haswell chips, but now company vice president Navin Shenoy has conceded that Ivy Bridge, Sandy Bridge, Skylake and Kaby Lake-based platforms are susceptible.
In rather more positive news, Shenoy also says that good progress has been made in identifying the root cause of the problem. Furthermore, beta microcode should be made available to vendors next week.
Microsoft releases confusing patches for AMD systems bricked by Meltdown and Spectre fixes
While the notorious Meltdown and Spectre chip bugs are still yet to pose a real threat in their own right, it's rather a different story when it comes to the patches designed to fix the problems. Microsoft had to pause the rollout of patches after reports that they were leaving some AMD systems unbootable.
Now the software giant has released two new updates -- one for Windows 7 (KB4073578) and one for Windows 8.1 (KB4073576) -- to fix the "Unbootable state for AMD devices" issue. But it's not all good news. These are updates that have to be manually downloaded and installed, and Microsoft has provided no instructions about how to use them.
Meltdown and Spectre: very few enterprise mobile devices are patched, and many will never be
The Meltdown and Spectre bugs have been in the headlines for a couple of weeks now, but it seems the patches are not being installed on handsets. Analysis of more than 100,000 enterprise mobile devices shows that just a tiny percentage of them have been protected against the vulnerabilities -- and some simply may never be protected.
Security firm Bridgeway found that just 4 percent of corporate phones and tablets in the UK have been patched against Spectre and Meltdown. Perhaps more worryingly, however, its research also found that nearly a quarter of enterprise mobile devices will never receive a patch because of their age.
Malwarebytes warns that fake Meltdown and Spectre patches are being used to spread Smoke Loader malware
News of the Meltdown and Spectre processor bugs quickly spread around the world, as companies and individuals tried to protect their systems. But in addition to concerns about the performance hit patches may have on computers, Malwarebytes has also issued a stark warning about fake patches.
The security firm warns that criminals have used interest in Meltdown and Spectre to push out fraudulent bug fixes that are laced with Smoke Loader malware.
Spectre patch in iOS 11.2.2 is slowing down iPhones
As technology firms around the world try to mop up the mess that the Meltdown and Spectre chip bugs are making, Intel has been keen to stress that the impact patches will have on performance will be minimal. The company has already released benchmark results that show the hardest hit will be older computers. Now new benchmarks show that iPhone users may notice slowdowns too.
One iPhone 6 owner decided to benchmark his phone and found that the performance hit is significant. So significant, in fact, that some tasks see a performance degradation of more than 50 percent.
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