CPU Usage Differences After Applying Meltdown Patch at Epic Games

Post by Pxtl » Sat, Jan 06, 2018, 2:06 PM UTC

Darthy wrote: post #71

The Meltdown attack requires an attacker to have a piece of code executed on your server. Epic's servers are used for login, where people send you data, and for game logic, where people also just send you data like "player x moved his avatar here, player y shoots etc". If all the server does is execute the code which Epic wrote themselves and already trust, why would it need to apply the Meltdown patch?

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jan 06, 2018, 2:09 PM UTC

drawnwren wrote: post #76

Darthy wrote: post #71

The Meltdown attack requires an attacker to have a piece of code executed on your server. Epic's servers are used for login, where people send you data, and for game logic, where people also just send you data like "player x moved his avatar here, player y shoots etc". If all the server does is execute the code which Epic wrote themselves and already trust, why would it need to apply the Meltdown patch?

This is a horrible approach to security. If you only secure against attacks you expect, you're gonna have a bad time.

Post by dogma1138 » Sat, Jan 06, 2018, 2:12 PM UTC

contrarian_ wrote: post #21

Pretty much what I predicted here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16054674 > Sounds like servers handling lots of small UDP packets would be hit pretty hard.

Post by LV-426 » Sat, Jan 06, 2018, 2:18 PM UTC

Darthy wrote: post #94

progval wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It makes sense if you don't want a remote code execution in one of your app to provide a full root shell.

Thank you for the explanation, and especially for being non-snarky, which unfortunately seems to be getting rarer and rarer on this forum.

Post by jacksmith21006 » Sat, Jan 06, 2018, 2:26 PM UTC