The long, slow process of patching more than a billion PCs worldwide against the
Meltdown and
Spectre attacks continued today, with Microsoft's release of an assortment of software patches for multiple Windows versions as well as an expanded release of Intel microcode updates.
Today's
Patch Tuesday release includes security updates that defend against the Meltdown vulnerability on PCs running x86 versions of Windows 7 and 8.1. With those updates, all currently supported Windows releases now include defense against this vulnerability.
Also: Windows RDP flaw: 'Install Microsoft's patch, turn on your firewall'
For devices running Windows 10, today's security updates also remove the antivirus compatibility check that had blocked earlier cumulative security updates. In a companion blog post, Microsoft noted that it will continue to block security updates on PCs running antivirus drivers that are known to have compatibility issues.
In a separate but related release, Microsoft announced it is significantly expanding the number of Intel-validated microcode updates it's making available through the Microsoft Catalog site. The new updates mitigate against Spectre Variant 2 (CVE 2017-5715) and apply to a broad set of Skylake, Kaby Lake, and Coffee Lake Intel processors.
