[nobthehobbit]

https://gizmodo.com/report-all-intel-pr ... 1821728240

Prepare for anywhere from a 5% to 30% slowdown in processor speed.

For everything with an Intel processor.

Including servers.

Long story short, there's a major vulnerability in Intel processors that has to be patched in a way that will slow them way down. It took ten years to find the exploit, but it's been found, and there's no going back from that.

[ikeya]

This is bad.

[nobthehobbit]

This is bad.

Oh, it gets worse.

AMD won't release all the details of their own processor architecture, so the patch has to be applied in a way that will impact all processors, regardless of manufacturer. (It has to be done at the OS level, not via drivers.) That means that AMD processors will see this same slowdown. (EDIT: Assuming you install the relevant patch, of course--but that may not be much of an option considering how Microsoft's changed its patching regimen. Linux users may be able to avoid it, though.)

EDIT #2: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/intel-a ... -1.4471322

Meanwhile, Intel shares have dropped 6%, while AMD shares have gained 9%.

[nobthehobbit]

https://meltdownattack.com/#faq-systems-meltdown

I'm not sure if these are the exploits that target this Intel flaw, but apparently there are some hard-to-patch holes in processors that affect not only Intel, but also AMD and ARM.

[Fritzinger]

This has hit the Internet hard because the biggest cloud hosting providers (Amazon and Google) are scared (maybe they have some experience) that (in laymans terms) their customers will be able to get at each other's servers. How scared? AWS announced a plan yesterday to their customers with timelines for when the customers would be affected. Overnight they revised it to, "we're doing it now".

Spent most of yesterday and today at work dealing with the fallout.

https://istheinternetonfire.com

o0

[AllenGould]

https://meltdownattack.com/#faq-systems-meltdown

I'm not sure if these are the exploits that target this Intel flaw, but apparently there are some hard-to-patch holes in processors that affect not only Intel, but also AMD and ARM.

https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/584653

All CPUs and OSes verified.

That said, it reads like you need a fair number of things to go right in order to pull this off, so I'm less worried about the "we're all doomed" aspect right now.

[nobthehobbit]

https://meltdownattack.com/#faq-systems-meltdown

I'm not sure if these are the exploits that target this Intel flaw, but apparently there are some hard-to-patch holes in processors that affect not only Intel, but also AMD and ARM.

https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/584653

All CPUs and OSes verified.

That said, it reads like you need a fair number of things to go right in order to pull this off, so I'm less worried about the "we're all doomed" aspect right now.

Well, Meltdown and Spectre don't target this particular Intel flaw (the dates don't match, for instance). In particular, this flaw has (AFAIK) no known exploits in the wild.

[monty42]

I have two hamsters in a wheel that propel a mechanical processor. Everytime I put a plug in their butts to update them, they get really aggravated...

[nobthehobbit]

https://danielmiessler.com/blog/simple- ... n-spectre/

A breakdown of Meltdown and Spectre.

[nobthehobbit]

https://www.askwoody.com/2018/multiple- ... b-4056894/

Looks like there are some major issues with the main Windows 7 patch this month.

[nobthehobbit]

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3 ... stems.html

If you have an Intel Haswell or Broadwell processor, don't install the anti-Meltdown/Spectre firmware patch.

It's triggering reboots.