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Author Topic: Serious vulnerability discovered in Intel processors  (Read 21205 times)

sevenlayermuddle

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Re: Serious vulnerability discovered in Intel processors
« Reply #90 on: January 14, 2018, 05:13:31 PM »

Sorry if I alarmed you. :)


No problem, I’m often told I’m too easily alarmed. :D

It is a worry though.  I chose my current iMac because it is one of the few modern Macs that has user-upgradeable memory, in my case through a little door in the back.  And that is good, but anything more than memory means dismantling the cabinet, which is not simply screwed together, it is glued all around the edge of the glass.   Various online tutorials show how to cut through the glue with a kind of miniature pizza wheel, but I strongly suspect that has potential to end badly. ::)
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Chrysalis

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Re: Serious vulnerability discovered in Intel processors
« Reply #91 on: January 15, 2018, 11:10:32 AM »

yep microcode updates are done via motherboard bios updates, consumer boards older than a few years in my opinion wont get an update

not to mention even if a bios is available the vast majority of existing boards out there wont be updated
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ejs

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Re: Serious vulnerability discovered in Intel processors
« Reply #92 on: January 15, 2018, 05:12:28 PM »

Operating systems can also do CPU microcode updates. Linux does, I think Windows does also.
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sevenlayermuddle

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Re: Serious vulnerability discovered in Intel processors
« Reply #93 on: January 15, 2018, 06:28:24 PM »

Operating systems can also do CPU microcode updates. Linux does, I think Windows does also.

I’m curious to know how that works in practice.

I assume (wrongly, perhaps) that each CPU has different microcode.   Even within Intel, I’d have assumed that each member of the huge family of CPUs would each have had unique microcode.

If that assumption is bad, read no further.   But if it is true....

...an Engineer putting together a Linux or Microsoft update package does not ‘know’ the CPU upon which it will be installed.   Does the update package then carry all microcodes for all conceivable  CPUs, or is each update tailored to the user’s hardware and built on request, or does it ‘phone home’ for microcode during the install, once the CPU is known?   Or something else?
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ejs

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Re: Serious vulnerability discovered in Intel processors
« Reply #94 on: January 15, 2018, 06:32:45 PM »

Does the update package then carry all microcodes for all conceivable  CPUs

Yes, this is how it's done. The whole lot totals a few MB. Each one is not very big.
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MartinGoose

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Re: Serious vulnerability discovered in Intel processors
« Reply #95 on: January 15, 2018, 06:51:12 PM »

I’m curious to know how that works in practice.

Instructions here will explain for the Linux Distribution that I use:
<https://pclinuxoshelp.com/index.php/CPU_Microcode>
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sevenlayermuddle

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Re: Serious vulnerability discovered in Intel processors
« Reply #96 on: January 15, 2018, 08:45:06 PM »

Thank you EJS and MartinGoose for satisfying my curiousity.   I’ll probably have forgotten all that by Thursday but for now, I feel better educated. :)

I am slightly reminded of early career in mainframes, when OS ‘patches’ could be applied by the expendient of leaving a small deck of punched cards in a card reader, attached to the system.   At boot time, the card deck was loaded and applied as, literally, a small data patch, overwriting a few bytes of memory with alternative machine code instructions.
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Chrysalis

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Re: Serious vulnerability discovered in Intel processors
« Reply #97 on: January 16, 2018, 12:57:28 AM »

Interesting I didnt know the OS could do it also.

A quick google seems to show only linux based solutions tho.
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banger

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Re: Serious vulnerability discovered in Intel processors
« Reply #98 on: January 16, 2018, 01:15:25 AM »

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Tim
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Chrysalis

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Re: Serious vulnerability discovered in Intel processors
« Reply #99 on: January 17, 2018, 12:29:53 AM »

one of my vps providers notified me today my vps is been migrated to a new server which has the microcode updates, in 2 days time.

Interesting to see the proactive response, although I am going to run some benches before and after to compare.
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Chrysalis

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Re: Serious vulnerability discovered in Intel processors
« Reply #100 on: January 26, 2018, 06:59:04 AM »

As more information is coming to light it turns out the el reg fear mongering may not be too overhyped.

People are coming out the woodwork showing certian load examples of heavy performance hits and there is also stability issues showing up as well, intel have issued new advice to hold on applying fixes for now as they consider it now not production ready.

Linus has openly said in public he considers intel's proposed fixes in the linux kernel a joke.

For the curious I have not applied any of the fixes on my own systems, I use a layered security approach meaning skipping over these patches I am still not vulnerable and I prefer to keep the full performance of my hardware, at least for now.
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Bowdon

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Re: Serious vulnerability discovered in Intel processors
« Reply #101 on: January 26, 2018, 12:55:02 PM »

As more information is coming to light it turns out the el reg fear mongering may not be too overhyped.

People are coming out the woodwork showing certian load examples of heavy performance hits and there is also stability issues showing up as well, intel have issued new advice to hold on applying fixes for now as they consider it now not production ready.

I know one person who applied the bios updates and immediately got 2 BSOD's.

Apparently Microsoft know why some machines are locking up and are going to introduce another patch later on to unpick the previous one. They haven't said whats causing the lockup's though.
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Chrysalis

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Re: Serious vulnerability discovered in Intel processors
« Reply #102 on: January 26, 2018, 11:10:58 PM »

on linux and bsd the patches in development are optional via a tunable they recognised forcing a crippled cpu is unacceptable
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banger

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Re: Serious vulnerability discovered in Intel processors
« Reply #103 on: January 29, 2018, 03:09:56 AM »

This little tool is made by GRC of Shields Up fame and can be found here -> https://www.grc.com/inspectre.htm

It tells you what your machine is vulnerable to in easy to read box. My machine is patched for Meltdown but not Spectre.
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Tim
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Oldjim

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Re: Serious vulnerability discovered in Intel processors
« Reply #104 on: January 29, 2018, 03:21:16 PM »

me too
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Jim
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