Info Meltdown and Spectre Vulnerabilities Information

[gamerk316]

That's for the 9900K, which is another ~3% loss in performance. Yikes.

I wonder how much AMD lost on average.

Cheers!

Too many more of these and Itanium may end up outperforming x86 after all. 😀

 

[EmilyLewis]

Spectre and Meltdown are uniquely dangerous security vulnerabilities that allow malicious actors to bypass system security protections present in nearly every recent device with a CPU-not just PCs, servers, and smartphones, but also Internet of Things (IoT) devices like routers and smart TVs. By leveraging the duo, it is possible to read protected system memory, gaining access to passwords, encryption keys, and other sensitive information.

 

[RLarcosPES2]

Sorry if this has been answered before, but is the Core i7-4790k vullnerable?

Also if it is, has it been patched? If yes how can I check if I am patched?

Thank you!

 

[Eximo]

Sorry if this has been answered before, but is the Core i7-4790k vullnerable?

Also if it is, has it been patched? If yes how can I check if I am patched?

Thank you!

The answer is yes, basically all Intel CPUs have vulnerabilities.

Microsoft will have pushed out what they could through Windows. On your end you have to update your BIOS to the latest, read the patch/release notes for the versions available.

They didn't always go back and fix the older CPUs, so there might not be anything you can do.

 

[RLarcosPES2]

The answer is yes, basically all Intel CPUs have vulnerabilities.

Microsoft will have pushed out what they could through Windows. On your end you have to update your BIOS to the latest, read the patch/release notes for the versions available.

They didn't always go back and fix the older CPUs, so there might not be anything you can do.

Do you know the exact update for this? You know KB000000 and some numbers.

Also my motherboard doesn't have a recent BIOS update. How can I protect myself from this vullnerability? (Apart from changing the hardware as I can't afford it at the moment)

 

[Eximo]

Do you know the exact update for this? You know KB000000 and some numbers.

Also my motherboard doesn't have a recent BIOS update. How can I protect myself from this vullnerability? (Apart from changing the hardware as I can't afford it at the moment)

It is way more than one as they keep finding variants of this problem and doing what software changes are possible to mitigate it. If you have kept Windows up to date that is as good as it is going to get. You can also disable hyperthreading if you want it to be more secure.

 

[RLarcosPES2]

So, I have to take another 30% performance hit?

Thank you for your help!

 

[jostegogar]

new security flaw is discovered called Netcat
https://appuals.com/intel-xenon-and...which-allows-data-leak-through-ddio-and-rdma/

 

[reichenwald]

This makes me wonder my many coorperate IT departments are still buying Intel

 

[Eximo]

Momentum. Too difficult to change products in the middle of a datacenter build, that stuff is planned years in advance, parts purchased, contracts signed. A lot of it is outsourced anyway, so not up to corporate, but the supplier or hosting service they've contracted. Also, it is not like they are buying new hardware immediately. Most datacenters don't upgrade every few years, they might wait out the whole lifecycle of the hardware and only start replacement when hardware failures reach a certain percentage.

Most of my servers are running on 7 - 8 year old processors. These would be our latest equipment in a 'new' datacenter. As long as those guys have parts and can meet the required uptimes those computers probably have another 5 years in them before they consider an upgrade.

 

[gamerk316]

https://arstechnica.com/information...psets-have-a-concerning-flaw-thats-unfixable/

Here we go again.

 

[gamerk316]

And finally, an AMD exploit:

https://www.techspot.com/news/84309-amd-cpus-vulnerable-severe-new-side-channel-attack.html

 

[-Fran-]

Ouch.

That one seems to be patchable at least.

Cheers!

 

[mangaman]

Like I've said before(maybe not in this thread), I would not be surprised if these exploits have been used in the wild long ago(relative to the release of white papers).

Could be, but these vulnerabilities require many procedures to be effective. An attacker is much more likely to infiltrate a system using traditional malware tactics, as these CPU vulnerabilities found require an extensive checklist to be effective. Plus these are lab tested with specific computer systems, so it's unknown yet if any of these would be effective in the wild with so many different variations and system types.

Best thing to do right now is to be calm and updated on this matter.

 

[simplyMerlin66]

Why do people still care about this?

 

[-Fran-]

Why do people still care about this?

Because memory is fragile and ignorant people are meant to repeat history's mistakes

Plus, I'm sure there's people that doesn't know how badly Intel was hit by this and are oblivious to the patches required.

Cheers!

 

[gamerk316]

Oh look, AMD decided it was tired of Intel receiving all the security-related attention and decided to get in on things:

https://www.extremetech.com/computi...es-a-spectre-like-vulnerability-in-zen-3-cpus

 

[-Fran-]

On that note: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd-zen3-psf&num=1

That's very minimal loss, so fortunately, nothing much to worry about!

Cheers!

 

[gamerk316]

It does go to show: The more features you add to cheat and speed up processing, the more backdoors you add.

 

[gamerk316]

https://www.techspot.com/news/89518...ility-costly-patch-but-nearly-impossible.html

Aren't caches great?

 

[Gilbert.]

So basically, there are two separate issues:

Meltdown: Confirmed on Intel CPUs. Believed AMD and ARM CPUs unaffected, or at the very least not affected in the same way. OS level fixes are being implemented.

Specter: Affects all Intel, AMD, and ARM CPUs. There is no current solution that works across the board.

Basically: Every consumer level CPU released since the mid to late 90's have had gaping security holes. One of them appears Intel specific and is being fixed, the other affects everyone and is not.

Fun times.

Amazing information. I really enjoyed reading this thread and discussion by the people.