Advice Request Spectre and Meltdown

[upnorth]

The article is technically correct, but unnecessarily fear-mongering.

It's just plain simple fact and sure that can be scary to some but I do hope for most in a place like MT it ain't but instead help deliver more knowledge and strength instead of trying to ignore it and sweep it under the carpet. Garbage don't magicly disappear that way even if we all wish it.

The type of fileless drive-by attacks they are scaring us with just don't happen anymore. They died out a few years ago.

I really wish that was the truth, I genuine do but reports/news is telling a very different story and do anyone actually belive something that's effective and works would die out. Asking thiefs stop stealing or politicians stop lying sorry to say don't work even if we all wish it.

Malvertisement, exploit-kits etc. It's more then well documented and even posted about in the news sections here on MT so anyone that's curious and want to learn something, here's a few more links that hopefully will help. Enjoy!

Drive-by attack

Equifax’s Latest Security Foil: A Defunct Web Service

Spoiler

Here’s why the epidemic of malicious ads grew so much worse last year

RIG Exploit Kit Infrastructure Disrupted | SecurityWeek.Com

What a script! Detecting and analyzing a Flash drive-by attack (Screenshot Demo)

Prediction of drive-by download attacks on Twitter - ScienceDirect

 

[shmu26]

Part of mature security management is learning to separate realistic threats from media hype.
If you run Chrome/Firefox/Edge on Windows 10 x64, and you have latest updates, you won't be able to get your browers exploited, even if your life depended on it. Ask the testers.

Clarification: I am speaking specifically of fileless browser exploits. Yes, there is plenty of malware activity of other sorts, but it all starts with opening a file of some sort. That is something that you as the user can control. Fileless browser exploits, on the other hand, can take place without user interaction. That is what you DON'T have to worry about.

 

[ForgottenSeer 69673]

Check microcode version using hwinfo and google it or use inspectre to check if you're protected or not!

I used inspectre before and after the patch two months ago. Before patch, failed, after passed. I will give hwinfo and see what comes up.

 

[SumTingWong]

"Intel has finished designing microcode update patches for its processors. On April 2nd, 2018, they announced that processors that have not yet been patched will never be patched. Their full statement is available in this PDF document. In that document, Intel specifies which of their many processors do have patches and which of their more recent processors will never receive updated firmware. Now that the industry has this information, this 8th release of InSpectre incorporates that list of CPUIDs and displays whether microcode firmware updates exist for the system's Intel CPU. " - InSpectre site.

 

[ForgottenSeer 69673]

What I don't understand about inspectre is even though I have had to bios updates within the last three months, It still shows a micro code update is available. What does that mean anyway.?

 

[SumTingWong]

What I don't understand about inspectre is even though I have had to bios updates within the last three months, It still shows a micro code update is available. What does that mean anyway.?
View attachment 191189

It means Intel have the microcode available that you can manually patch it by yourself if you cannot wait for your vendor to release the patch. If Microcode Update Available says no, than your CPU will be vulnerable forever according to Intel statement.

 

[roger_m]

What I don't understand about inspectre is even though I have had to bios updates within the last three months, It still shows a micro code update is available. What does that mean anyway.?

It is just saying that there is a patch available. It doesn't know if your BIOS has been updated (and therefore doesn't need to be patched), or not.

 

[Hi Brothers]

It means Intel have the microcode available that you can manually patch it by yourself if you cannot wait for your vendor to release the patch. If Microcode Update Available says no, than your CPU will be vulnerable forever according to Intel statement.

How do we manually patch our CPU? And is it worth it? I have an i7 4770k with a z87-k motherboard, the latest bios version for it is from 2015, asus doesn't seem like it's gonna patch it at all

 

[SumTingWong]

How do we manually patch our CPU? And is it worth it? I have an i7 4770k with a z87-k motherboard, the latest bios version for it is from 2015, asus doesn't seem like it's gonna patch it at all

Modifying BIOS. It is too risky to do it for inexperience user. You can bomb your motherboard if you don't know what you are modifying.

 

[Hi Brothers]

Modifying BIOS. It is too risky to do it for inexperience user. You can bomb your motherboard if you don't know what you are modifying.

Can't we just reset bios or something? And do we even need the update? I read spectre and meltdown in the wild are like nonexistent, not for home users at least

 

[SumTingWong]

Can't we just reset bios or something? And do we even need the update? I read spectre and meltdown in the wild are like nonexistent, not for home users at least

You will need either a BIOS firmware or a new CPU that is not affected by Spectre and Meltdown.

 

[Yellowing]

So... I can basically deactivate the Meltdown-fix and gain Performance because nobody uses this exploit anyway? Did I read that right?
Does anyone have number backing that?
BTW there is no Spectre update for my CPU.

 

[Vasudev]

So... I can basically deactivate the Meltdown-fix and gain Performance because nobody uses this exploit anyway? Did I read that right?
Does anyone have number backing that?
BTW there is no Spectre update for my CPU.

I disabled Spectre OS protection using Inspectre. In enterprise network, I will recommend it to, toggle enabled state.
Prema(BIOS developer) said to disable spectre protection while gaming or benchmarking to avoid low scores.

 

[Yellowing]

You disabled Spectre fix, but what about Meltdown?

 

[Vasudev]

You disabled Spectre fix, but what about Meltdown?

Meltdown doesn't have performance penalty.

 

[Yellowing]

@Vasudev
It says so in InSpectre and I felt a loss since that patch is on. Also: Intel details performance hit for Meltdown fix on affected processors
And I do have an i3 of the first or second generation. (Kill me)

 

[Vasudev]

@Vasudev
It says so in InSpectre and I felt a loss since that patch is on. Also: Intel details performance hit for Meltdown fix on affected processors
And I do have an i3 of the first or second generation. (Kill me)

I have Pentium Ivybridge and skylake HQ laptops. Ivybridge after the patch is slower and feels like 1st gen CPU. Skylake performance is like Ivybridge HQ chip. Really disappointed that hyper threading will be disabled by Linux in future versions because of Spectre.