Intel CEO: Patches will come to 90% of chips in the next week

Does the update come in the form of a BIOS update? If so, then the patch still has to travel through the PC manufacturers, like when Google patches Android. Or can it be somehow applied directly?

Edit: Apparently the OS can update the CPU's microcode. No need for BIOS updates. It was even done in the past. For instance, an unrelated Windows Vista update that updates microcode: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/936357/a-microcode-...

Re: Intel CEO: Patches will come to 90% of chips in the next week

#5

Post by nickysielicki » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 10:45 PM UTC

maltalex wrote: post #4

How does one patch a CPU? Does the update come in the form of a BIOS update? If so, then the patch still has to travel through the PC manufacturers, like when Google patches Android. Or can it be somehow applied directly? Edit: Apparently the OS can update the CPU's microcode. No need for BIOS updates. It was even done in the past. For instance, an unrelated Windows Vista update that updates microcode: https://suppor…

https://wiki.debian.org/Microcode

The real news here is that Intel thinks they can fix this via microcode. This is surprising because initially there were some strong arguments that this wouldn't be possible.

Re: Intel CEO: Patches will come to 90% of chips in the next week

#6

Post by dm319 » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 10:48 PM UTC

Surely he is talking about the Win/Mac/Linux kernel patches? Would seem bizarre for all the work to go on the kernels when Intel had some firmware patches up their sleeve? Also I thought Spectre is something that is unlikely to be patched in the near future.

Re: Intel CEO: Patches will come to 90% of chips in the next week

#7

Post by dmitrygr » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 10:49 PM UTC

Keep in mind, they did NOT say patches with no cost. Mostly they are adding ways to disable speculation on indirect branches. This has a cost.

Re: Intel CEO: Patches will come to 90% of chips in the next week

#8

Post by donaldihunter » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 10:50 PM UTC

maltalex wrote: post #4

How does one patch a CPU? Does the update come in the form of a BIOS update? If so, then the patch still has to travel through the PC manufacturers, like when Google patches Android. Or can it be somehow applied directly? Edit: Apparently the OS can update the CPU's microcode. No need for BIOS updates. It was even done in the past. For instance, an unrelated Windows Vista update that updates microcode: https://suppor…

Intel's not patching anything. They're relying on Windows, Linux and macOS patches to work around the vulnerability. Presumably that's how the 90% claim can be made. Very disingenuous of Intel tho.

EDIT: There are microcode updates included in the OS updates: https://access.redhat.com/articles/3311301

Re: Intel CEO: Patches will come to 90% of chips in the next week

#9

Post by dm319 » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 10:50 PM UTC

dooglius wrote: post #3

If Intel knew about the issues on June 1, why are the patches only appearing now? I thought the point of an embargo was to let the fixes come first.

It was meant to be embargoed til today, but the news came out earlier than expected. Sounds like people have been working round the clock since the discovery to patch this.

Re: Intel CEO: Patches will come to 90% of chips in the next week

#10

Post by maltalex » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 10:51 PM UTC

nickysielicki wrote: post #5

maltalex wrote: post #4

How does one patch a CPU? Does the update come in the form of a BIOS update? If so, then the patch still has to travel through the PC manufacturers, like when Google patches Android. Or can it be somehow applied directly? Edit: Apparently the OS can update the CPU's microcode. No need for BIOS updates. It was even done in the past. For instance, an unrelated Windows Vista update that updates microcode: https://suppor…

https://wiki.debian.org/Microcode The real news here is that Intel thinks they can fix this via microcode. This is surprising because initially there were some strong arguments that this wouldn't be possible.

Yeah, well, let's not break out the champagne yet. According to your link:

> The BIOS (or UEFI) updates the CPU microcode during boot, however most of the time either the motherboard vendor won't issue frequent BIOS/UEFI updates, or the user won't install such updates. For these reasons, the system processor is likely to be running with outdated microcode on a vast number of systems.

We still need the various manufacturers to release a BIOS version for a bunch of hardware they manufactured years ago. I'm not sure that's going to happen, at least not quickly.