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News Vendors issue Meltdown, Spectre security updates

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by bit-tech, 5 Jan 2018.

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  1. bit-tech

    bit-tech Supreme Overlord Lover of bit-tech Administrator

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    Read more
     
    bit-tech, 5 Jan 2018
    #1
  2. Otis1337

    Otis1337 aka - Ripp3r

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    my anti-virus's are confirmed compatible, but still no update on build 1709.
    Last update was 12/12/17
     
    Otis1337, 5 Jan 2018
    #2
  3. Pete J

    Pete J Employed scum

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    Forgive me if I've misunderstood the exact nature of this, but does that mean all Intel benchmarks have to be revisited?

    And will this affect Otis1337's X5650? I wish I still had my 920 rig.
     
    Pete J, 5 Jan 2018
    #3
  4. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Yes: the Meltdown fix has anything from a zero to a 35% performance impact, depending on the workload - so any and all benchmarks should be re-run (which will also have the added bonus of figuring out exactly which workloads sit in the 0% end and which in the 35% end of the spectrum.)
    Is it an Intel x86 chip released since 1995? Then yes.
    No you don't: that's also affected by both Meltdown and Spectre.

    Seriously: every Intel x86/x86-64 processor released since 1995, bar a couple of Atoms, is vulnerable to both Meltdown and Spectre, while every other processor not specifically designed for low-power embedded use is vulnerable to Spectre and might be vulnerable to the new Variant 3a Meltdown attack too.

    Fun times!
     
    Gareth Halfacree, 5 Jan 2018
    #4
  5. Pete J

    Pete J Employed scum

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    Thanks for the reply Gareth.

    Wow. This is really big. Really, really big.Time to go back to the original Pentium then - keep those pesky cyberthieves at bay.

    I still miss my 920 even if it is affected!
     
    Pete J, 5 Jan 2018
    #5
  6. adidan

    adidan Guesswork is still work

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    Looking forward to all those chips since 1995 being retested. Busy year ahead :)
     
    adidan, 5 Jan 2018
    #6
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  7. Dogbert666

    Dogbert666 *Fewer Lover of bit-tech Administrator

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    Anyone have a large rock I can go and hide under please?
     
    Dogbert666, 5 Jan 2018
    #7
    David likes this.
  8. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Hey, I'll tell you what would be useful in the interim: run the BT benchmark suite on an Intel Windows box before and after the patch. That'll give you a baseline which you can use to guesstimate the performance impact on other Intel chips, at least, and a clear view of what tests are actually impacted.

    It won't bring up cases where the impact is significantly better or worse in different chip generations, which will only be discovered by retesting everything, but it'd be a sure-fire attention-getter if it could hit the site in the next day or so.
     
    Gareth Halfacree, 5 Jan 2018
    #8
  9. adidan

    adidan Guesswork is still work

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    Can you test a 3770 on W7 64 please :)

    Edit: Just thought. In order to get a real impression of how it affects different chips you really should test on the MS OS available at the time too :)

    Oh and then on those available now like 7, 8 and 10 :)

    Sorry Dogbert...
     
    adidan, 5 Jan 2018
    #9
  10. jaggyman

    jaggyman What's a Dremel?

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    jaggyman, 5 Jan 2018
    #10
  11. Otis1337

    Otis1337 aka - Ripp3r

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    Otis1337, 5 Jan 2018
    #11
  12. RedFlames

    RedFlames ...is not a Belgian football team

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    Try applying the updates manually?

    KB4058702

    KB4056892
     
    RedFlames, 5 Jan 2018
    #12
  13. adidan

    adidan Guesswork is still work

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    W7 seemed to have one KB released today in an early monthly patch. Presume that's all there is for 7.

    Firefox got an update and IE11 updated with windows.
     
    adidan, 5 Jan 2018
    #13
  14. adidan

    adidan Guesswork is still work

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    Do you have malwarebytes as well at all? I think that needs to be upto date too.
     
    adidan, 5 Jan 2018
    #14
  15. RedFlames

    RedFlames ...is not a Belgian football team

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    The Windows patch, regardless of whether you were on 7, 8.1 or 10 was included in the monthly Patch Tuesday patch rollup [which was pushed out early].
    FF is patched as of 57.0.4 [not sure about the ESR version],
    Chrome has a patch... incoming i think...
    Apple calim the current iOS and macOS updates include a patch for it iirc.

    Android... good luck...
     
    Last edited: 5 Jan 2018
    RedFlames, 5 Jan 2018
    #15
  16. adidan

    adidan Guesswork is still work

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    I think I read something about Chrome being on 23rd? Seems a bit of a wait if that's the case but I think that's when the next update was due anyway? Not sure on that one.

    And what of AI? Is that in trouble? Are we going to have the flawed AI overlords come and use us as walking batteries?!?
     
    adidan, 5 Jan 2018
    #16
  17. edzieba

    edzieba Virtual Realist

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    [SMUG PIXEL NOISES]
     
    edzieba, 5 Jan 2018
    #17
  18. Pookeyhead

    Pookeyhead It's big, and it's clever.

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    Seems pointless upgrading my PC now then.... Surely any future chips released will be a revised design... the sensible thing to do would be to just hang on until then.
     
    Pookeyhead, 6 Jan 2018
    #18
  19. Corky42

    Corky42 Where's walle?

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    You're going to have a long wait for Intel to revise their design as the Meltdown flaw has been part of their chips for over two decades and an underused mitigation to that flaw has been included for the past six odd years but has largely been ignored by software developers.

    Spectre on the other hand is really only something that can be mitigated via software updates, at least that's my laymens understanding of the situation.
     
    Corky42, 6 Jan 2018
    #19
  20. Guest-44432

    Guest-44432 Guest

    Intel has a detection tool to see if you're vulnerable, and whether you need a firmware update.
    https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/27150?v=t

    Also I ran Passmark benchmark to see if there is much of a performance loss since the windows patch updates, which seems like there isn't CPU score before the patch 9261, after 9255
    https://www.passmark.com/products/pt.htm

    This site was a good read on how to help protect yourselves.
    https://www.pcworld.com/article/324...otect-your-pc-meltdown-spectre-cpu-flaws.html

    I was planning on upgrading to the 8700k this month, but think I will hang fire, as my aging 4670K @4.2GHz is as fast as a 7600K in games. So hopefully Intel will fix the issues in the next die shrink.
    [​IMG]
     
    Guest-44432, 6 Jan 2018
    #20
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