Intel bug incoming? Meltdown and Spectre exploits

[[HB]Rugrat]

According to the following, Defender should have added the registry key. When you go into Defender is it possible to check for updates to see if Defender needs to update, then recheck the registry to see if it has set the reg key?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-sg...ndows-security-updates-and-antivirus-software

Oh I tell a lie, it is there (didn't show up when i searched for it for some reason).

Just tried it again - same result. I'm getting error code 0xc00000bb which is apparently related to NVME SSDs and they're promising a fix for end of Jan (well they promised that in December but I'm guessing they might have bigger fish to fry now!).

Thanks for the advice though man :thumbs:

 

[thenewoc]

Oh I tell a lie, it is there (didn't show up when i searched for it for some reason).

Just tried it again - same result. I'm getting error code 0xc00000bb which is apparently related to NVME SSDs and they're promising a fix for end of Jan (well they promised that in December but I'm guessing they might have bigger fish to fry now!).

Thanks for the advice though man :thumbs:

All you can do is keep checking then it seems...

This is the list of compatible AV products that someone produced a spreadsheet of in case anyone else needs it, some AV's require the reg key to be set manually!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...iuirADzf3cL42FQ/htmlview?usp=sharing&sle=true

Also, the following link contains some help with blue screen errors and advice regarding AV products and compatibility with the Windows Meltdown and Spectre patch.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-sg...ndows-security-updates-and-antivirus-software

 

[Matteysan]

Pretty happy with the reply Gigabyte gave me concerning a BIOS update for my GA-Z97X-SLI

Hello,

Our team is working on this issue. We will publish the BIOS on Gigabyte website once it ready.

1/11/2018 4:47 PM

Considering that the board is quite old now i'm surprised they are even bothering, One of the reasons I will stick to Gigabyte in future me thinks.

 

[mattyfez]

Yeh gigabyte do seem pretty on the ball.

They've not been very public about what they are doing unless you ask, but i guess that's because there's only a handful of new bios available for the latest boards at present, and they've hinted many more are in development.
Where they will draw the line with older boards though, who knows.

 

[LoadsaMoney]

I installed the Win 7 patch fine with Defender, and Avira AntiVir once it updated.

For anyone wondering, the latest Intel microcode release (dated 08/01/2018) contains updates for:

• Haswell
• Haswell-E
• Skylake
• Skylake-X
• Kaby Lake
• Broadwell
• Broadwell-E
• Coffee Lake

Plus a bunch of other non-desktop parts. Kaby Lake-X seems to be missing but I could just be misinterpreting the abbreviations (they list
KBL-U/Y H0, KBL Y0 / CFL D0, KBL-H/S B0, and SKX H0, one of which might include Kaby Lake-X but I'm not sure). There's also an update for IVT. There is no mention of what is changed or fixed in this release, but we can assume some Spectre fixes are included. Hopefully there'll be a second update in the next couple of weeks and that might show us how many generations will actually get fixes. The full list is as follows:

-- Updates upon 20171117 release --
IVT C0       (06-3e-04:ed) 428->42a
SKL-U/Y D0   (06-4e-03:c0) ba->c2
BDW-U/Y E/F   (06-3d-04:c0) 25->28
HSW-ULT Cx/Dx   (06-45-01:72) 20->21
Crystalwell Cx   (06-46-01:32) 17->18
BDW-H E/G   (06-47-01:22) 17->1b
HSX-EX E0   (06-3f-04:80) 0f->10
SKL-H/S R0   (06-5e-03:36) ba->c2
HSW Cx/Dx   (06-3c-03:32) 22->23
HSX C0       (06-3f-02:6f) 3a->3b
BDX-DE V0/V1   (06-56-02:10) 0f->14
BDX-DE V2   (06-56-03:10) 700000d->7000011
KBL-U/Y H0   (06-8e-09:c0) 62->80
KBL Y0 / CFL D0   (06-8e-0a:c0) 70->80
KBL-H/S B0   (06-9e-09:2a) 5e->80
CFL U0       (06-9e-0a:22) 70->80
CFL B0       (06-9e-0b:02) 72->80
SKX H0       (06-55-04:b7) 2000035->200003c
GLK B0       (06-7a-01:01) 1e->22

For Linux ?

 

[Glanza]

 

[mattyfez]

The sys mark responsiveness
scores are a bit cruddy.. What does that test exactly? Guess it's SSD performance as HDD sees a 1%gain lol!
Thanks

 

[darael]

According to HWiNFO64, my i5 7500's microcode is 7C. How do I check what the latest/current microcode version is?

 

[mattyfez]

According to HWiNFO64, my i5 7500's microcode is 7C. How do I check what the latest/current microcode version is?

Check to see if there's a new bios version on motherboard website, it'll need to be one that's been released in the last couple of days.

 

[jigger]

Fully mitigated.. Aye next year maybe Intel.

 

[darael]

Check to see if there's a new bios version on motherboard website, it'll need to be one that's been released in the last couple of days.

Version 1002 was released on 04/01/2018 for my Asus ROG Strix H270F Gaming motherboard.

 

[mattyfez]

Version 1002 was released on 04/01/2018 for my Asus ROG Strix H270F Gaming motherboard.

I'd suggest that's too old, but it's borderline.. you'd need to check the release comments /notes to see.

 

[darael]

I'd suggest that's too old, but it's borderline.. you'd need to check the release comments /notes to see.

Release notes are:

Version 1002 2018/01/04
STRIX H270F GAMING BIOS 1002
"1. Update CPU Microcode

2. Improve system compatibility and stability"

 

[V F]

As you say, "allegedly".

However, some pages ago it was suggested that this anomaly / bug was spotted a year ago (Bloomberg).

I have always assumed that Intel / AMD / ARM / Whoever have, at the behest of Security Services, placed back doors in their chips. I can see no reason why someone with malign intent might not discover these characteristics.

As I understand it, it was Mossad that first reported that Kaspersky might have been used to harvest NSA secrets (The Register), do you really believe that they, the NSA, GCHQ, SVR RF and others don't do their utmost to exploit flaws in systems - all the time?

All your base are belong to us?

 

[mattyfez]

Difficult to say, bios release notes are notoriously short on details.
There's a gigabyte cpu microcode update available for mine but it was released December 17, which was for a previous vulnerability.

 

[AmateurExpert]

I installed the Win 7 patch fine with Defender, and Avira AntiVir once it updated.
[...]
For Linux ?

Microcode is OS agnostic. It's just the distribution process for each OS is different. I expect Intel are still working their way through the processors.

Guess it's SSD performance as HDD sees a 1%gain lol!

Phoronix benchmarks on old laptops suggest that where an HDD is already a bottleneck, it will mask the hit from Meltdown/Spectre mitigations.

 

[mattyfez]

Phoronix benchmarks on old laptops suggest that where an HDD is already a bottleneck, it will mask the hit from Meltdown/Spectre mitigations.

HDD is so slow you probably would never notice a 10 hit anyway.

 

[AmateurExpert]

Confirmation of my earlier post that many media outlets are misconstruing Nvidia's GPU driver updates for Spectre as addressing an Nvidia GPU vulnerability when it fact it's just driver/application software vulnerabilities to Spectre (not unique to Nvidia): Trusted Reviews citing Reuters, who reported comments made by Jensen Huang at CES.

HDD is so slow you probably would never notice a 10 hit anyway.

True. On the upside, most people stuck with them in their PC and who need more performance still have (ignoring inflated prices) a relatively straightforward upgrade.

 

[thenewoc]

Confirmation of my earlier post that many media outlets are misconstruing Nvidia's GPU driver updates for Spectre as addressing an Nvidia GPU vulnerability when it fact it's just driver/application software vulnerabilities to Spectre (not unique to Nvidia): Trusted Reviews citing Reuters, who reported comments made by Jensen Huang at CES.



True. On the upside, most people stuck with them in their PC and who need more performance still have (ignoring inflated prices) a relatively straightforward upgrade.

I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't have to update drivers due to low level coding / accessing kernel memory in the way that some AV was / is, rather than using the OS's library / api method, eg the correct way of doing things to avoid blue screen errors that now occur when software tries to do it the non supported way.

 

[5punk3monk3y]

Version 1002 was released on 04/01/2018 for my Asus ROG Strix H270F Gaming motherboard.

https://www.asus.com/News/V5urzYAT6myCC1o2?_ga=2.59426221.1641626356.1515714440-908277248.1510685337