Major Intel CPU Hardware Vulnerability Found

[fullinfusion]

Oh what to do, what to do!

Do I install M$ patch and my Board Bios?

Seriously should I be worried or...

 

[notb]

Since your chip is Sandybridge maybe skip out on the microcode update for Spectre but patch for Meltdown? I'm considering going that direction myself.

Hmm... what exactly is the idea behind not installing patches for security issues?

 

[R-T-B]

Hmm... what exactly is the idea behind not installing patches for security issues?

Is there a microcode update as far back as Sandy Bridge?

 

[biffzinker]

Hmm... what exactly is the idea behind not installing patches for security issues?

Performance hit as result of the microcode update for Spectre since I'm on Haswell. If I had Skylake I wouldn't be bothered by the minor performance difference.

 

[notb]

Performance hit as result of the microcode update for Spectre since I'm on Haswell. If I had Skylake I wouldn't be bothered by the minor performance difference.

Do you log into your bank account from this PC? Because the way I see it, if you decide not to install the patch, you might as well just buy Skylake.

 

[fullinfusion]

Do you log into your bank account from this PC? Because the way I see it, if you decide not to install the patch, you might as well just buy Skylake.

lol

 

[OneMoar]

not gonna install this garbage patch

whole thing was blown way out of proportion the attack vector is complex hard to implement. and doesn't offer anymore data access then other attack vectors

if your system is compromised enough to where specter is a problem for data security then you are SOL, because you are already rootkitted and malwared to death by that point

security theater folks the odds of any attacker willing to bother with this method on the general populous are less then 0

ill probly write a ps script to allow people to opt out once all of the dust settles

 

[cucker tarlson]

Performance hit as result of the microcode update for Spectre since I'm on Haswell. If I had Skylake I wouldn't be bothered by the minor performance difference.

I suppose the difference on Haswell will be minor too, for the typical PC use that is.Let's wait for the tests before we jump to conclusions, shall we ?

 

[OneMoar]

I suppose the difference on Haswell will be minor too, for the typical PC use that is.Let's wait for the tests before we jump to conclusions, shall we ?

its 15-20% across the board
games video desktop stuff all of it
thats not minor thats HUGE

 

[R0H1T]

Meltdown PoC by Lipp, Schwarz, Gruss, Prescher, Haas, Mangard, Kocher, Genkin, Yarom, and Hamburg - https://github.com/IAIK/meltdown

 

[johnspack]

Seriously? I showed the microcode update for my sandybridge under ubuntu RTB? 1650 is a sandybridge, and it's available. Maybe not under windows, but who gives a fart.....

 

[R-T-B]

Seriously? I showed the microcode update for my sandybridge under ubuntu RTB? 1650 is a sandybridge, and it's available. Maybe not under windows, but who gives a fart.....

It was a question, not a statement. Thank you for answering.

How far do they go back I wonder? Westmere? Nehalem?

 

[RejZoR]

Easy to use tool to check for Spectre/Meltdown vulnerability:
https://www.ashampoo.com/en/usd/pin/1304/security-software/Ashampoo-Spectre-Meltdown-CPU-Checker

It's just odd that it's still showing AMD system as "Vulnerable" for Spectre. MS only distributed patches for Meltdown so far? The system also had BIOS updated which addresses this vulnerability (dated December 2017). CPU is AMD A9-9420 APU (Stoney Ridge).

Use this command in PowerShell afterwards because Ashampoo for some dumb reason doesn't set it back after the test:
Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Default -Scope CurrentUser

I'm re-quoting myself because the update to the post is quite important for those who used Ashampoo test tool.

 

[fullinfusion]

its 15-20% across the board
games video desktop stuff all of it
thats not minor thats HUGE

I did the M$ Maximus ix Code patch and mobo Bios update tonight, and so far I found no slow downs at all.. If anything I found out my 960 NVME drive is snappier then before but then again the bios said it has fixes to Samsung NVME drives...

 

[cucker tarlson]

its 15-20% across the board
games video desktop stuff all of it
thats not minor thats HUGE

haven't seen the tests, I thought there weren't any out there yet. could you provide the link please ?

 

[EarthDog]

its 15-20% across the board
games video desktop stuff all of it
thats not minor thats HUGE

There have been plenty of preliminary testing showing gaming wasn't affected.

I would like to see some links too because some of what you list isn't showing slow downs. It intitles where there is hihgh I/O between disk and CPU, it could cause some slowdowns, otherwise gaming is largely unaffected.

 

[RejZoR]

I was seeing huge kernel usage times during Windows update and stuff so that's gonna be affected the most.

 

[EarthDog]

AMD admits it is vulnerable...update

https://www.amd.com/en/corporate/speculative-execution

Google Project Zero (GPZ) Variant 1 (Bounds Check Bypass or Spectre) is applicable to AMD processors.
GPZ Variant 2 (Branch Target Injection or Spectre) is applicable to AMD processors.
GPZ Variant 3 (Rogue Data Cache Load or Meltdown) is not applicable to AMD processors.


EDIT: Biff posted this already... Oops!

 

[Peter Evans]

There have been plenty of preliminary testing showing gaming wasn't affected.

I would like to see some links too because some of what you list isn't showing slow downs. It intitles where there is hihgh I/O between disk and CPU, it could cause some slowdowns, otherwise gaming is largely unaffected.

This user biffzinker did some initial testing of ROTR in thread "After these security flaws should i go with Intel 8700k or AMD R 1700?", cant post direct link?
See #10 and expand, minimum frame-rates devastated!

 

[EarthDog]

ZOMG devastated!!!!!!!!!!!!!

https://www.techspot.com/article/1556-meltdown-and-spectre-cpu-performance-windows/page2.html

It in titles where there is high I/O between disk and CPU, it could cause some slowdowns, otherwise gaming is largely unaffected.

 

[RejZoR]

ZOMG devastated!!!!!!!!!!!!!

https://www.techspot.com/article/1556-meltdown-and-spectre-cpu-performance-windows/page2.html

Considering games are texture streaming heavy in current times, this can be an issue...

 

[EarthDog]

Perhaps BOLD would help clarify things a bit.

It in titles where there is high I/O between disk and CPU, it could cause some slowdowns, otherwise gaming is largely unaffected.

We've literally seen what, one title, maybe two(?) that had more than 1-2% performance loss (more than margin off error)??? I am all ears/eyes to be proven otherwise. Again, I am sure it will affect a couple of titles, but what we have seen so far, is very very few are showing anything more than a negligible difference.


I honestly think if had not bailed on this thing very shortly after I came out, I would have nuked and melted people at this site (and likely my ability to ever post here again). I can see why I did that the more I post on the subject, LOL!

 

[OneMoar]

Perhaps BOLD would help clarify things a bit.



We've literally seen what, one title, maybe two(?) that had more than 1-2% performance loss (more than margin off error)??? I am all ears/eyes to be proven otherwise. Again, I am sure it will affect a couple of titles, but what we have seen so far, is very very few are showing anything more than a negligible difference.


I honestly think if had not bailed on this thing very shortly after I came out, I would have nuked and melted people at this site (and likely my ability to ever post here again). I can see why I did that the more I post on the subject, LOL!

they tested one cpu we all know that anything >skylake would have a ~%5 hit

its a different story on haswell tho, still waiting for microcode sources so I can patch my bios(windows level patch does not enable all the fixes) but even with just the windows update before they pulled i was seeing -100pt in firestrike

 

[RejZoR]

I don't see any difference in Killing Floor 2 pre and post Meltdown update. Spectre thingie still waiting for it...

 

[Ahhzz]

Meh, not patching.