Major Intel CPU Hardware Vulnerability Found, up to 35% Performance LOSS across all platforms Imminent

GraySilencer

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Jun 25, 2016
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This is going to impact everyone using an Intel Processor. This is very bad as it's hardware related. My advice is to avoid buying Intel. I am already starting to regret buying my recent i5 based system.

https://www.game-debate.com/news/24293/rumour-major-intel-cpu-hardware-vulnerability-found-could-cost-35-performance?

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/02/intel_cpu_design_flaw/

In case you're wondering, AMD CPU's are not affected. https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/12/27/2
 
Yes, many of us are already aware of this. The actual article regarding what little information has been released so far is located here:

http://pythonsweetness.tumblr.com/post/169166980422/the-mysterious-case-of-the-linux-page-table

So far, from what we can tell, this is mostly going to affect cloud storage and data center type scenarios but since the NT kernel is affected by portions of the vulnerability it could extend a lot further into the mainstream. Can't jump to conclusions until more information is released though.
 
IMO, the key word here is "vulnerability". Is your system going to be vulnerable? Yes. But how much does that matter in the real world? Are all the Intel machines out there going to instantly turn into zombies? No.

If you look at the specific vulnerability and what it takes to exploit it there doesn't seem to be a lot of demand on anything other than very high end systems with specific security needs affected by "speculative execution", AKA branch prediction.

Can it be exploited? Yes. But how much time is someone going to spend on exploiting Joe Blow's processor that gets turned off every night when he goes to bed.

The real question, I think, is whether the patch is going to be optional or forced down our throats like most of the Win10 patches. I assume Linux will make it optional but who knows?