Security News Microsoft Releases Two New Windows Updates Containing New Spectre 2 Mitigations (available as a manual download from the MS Update Catalog portal)

[LASER_oneXM]

Content source

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-releases-two-new-windows-updates-containing-new-spectre-2-mitigations/

As the saying goes —if at first, you don't succeed, then try, try again.
This is the mantra that Microsoft seems to have taken up for dealing with the patching process meant to mitigate the effects of the Spectre v2 (CVE-2017-5715) vulnerability.
The OS maker released yesterday two new Windows updates meant to fix the Spectre v2 vulnerability.

KB4078407
The first of these two is KB4078407. This is a Windows Update package that is available via the Microsoft Update Catalog as a manual update only.
The update is a software-based OS-level mitigation for Spectre v2. Additional hardware-level CPU microcode (firmware) updates are still needed, based on the user's CPU make and model.
KB4078407 is only available for Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 systems.
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KB4091666
The second Windows Update package that Microsoft released yesterday is KB4091666, also available as a manual download from the Microsoft Update Catalog portal.
KB4091666 is for Intel users only. This update includes Intel microcode (firmware) updates needed to mitigate Spectre v2 at the hardware level.
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[Marko :)]

Anyone else tried to install the KB4078407? I couldn't even run it.

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Anyone else tried to install the KB4078407? I couldn't even run it.

Didn't work for me either... Maybe they will release those through Windows Update eventually?

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

There is a new (? not sure ) version of KB4078407 out.
Windows 10: Microcode updates KB4090007, KB4091663, KB4091664, KB4091666, KB4078407 | Born's Tech and Windows World
Now it installs without problems on my Acer laptop (that probably never will get a new bios from Acer )

 

[Marko :)]

I'll try to install it tomorrow. Thanks!

EDIT: Update KB4078407 still won't run. Maybe that's just for Intel devices only.

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

I'll try to install it tomorrow. Thanks!

EDIT: Update KB4078407 still won't run. Maybe that's just for Intel devices only.

Yes, only for some Intel devices, see my link for which Intel processors, they are Intel microcode updates.
For AMD it was I believe KB4093112:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4093112/windows-10-update-kb4093112
AMD Processor Security | AMD

 

[Marko :)]

I thought the first update was for all because it's said that the second one is for Intel devices only. Besides that, on Microsoft Update Catalog, it's said that update is for an AMD64 architecture. That confused me...