SPECTRE and MELTDOWN: Bug rocks Intel / ARM CPUs

[RamGuy]

IMPORTANT: If your Antivirus license has expired, not updating daily as it should, or your antivirus is just broken on you PC -- you will not get Microsoft Windows security updates anymore. So, make certain that your antivirus is working and updating properly. You should make sure your Antivirus is updated to the latest version. Note that this is different than the daily virus definition updates. If your Antivirus is working properly, you should automatically get these updates.
The reasons for this have to do with the recent Windows security patches for Meltdown and Spectre.
If you're interested in the technical details, you can read more here:
https://doublepulsar.com/important-i...u-a852ba0292ec

You have misinterpreted it. Because lots of security software does frequent kernel calls some might not work after you have installed the Security Update that patches "Meltdown". Symantec Endpoint Protection (their enterprise suite) and Norton stopped working immediately after the update.

Therefore Microsoft have decided to not provide the update automatically to systems that contains security software from third-parties. That means unless you run Windows Defender / Microsoft Security Essentials or no security software at all you won't get the update automatically through Windows Update.

In order to get it you need to download it manually from Microsoft's Update Catalogue or you have to add this to your registry in order to tell Microsoft/Windows that you system is compatible with the fix;

Key="HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" Subkey="SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ QualityCompat" Value="cadca5fe-87d3-4b96-b7fb-a231484277cc" Type="REG_DWORD”
Data="0x00000000”



This is Microsoft being overly cautions in order to avoid complications. Security Software companies are able to push this registry entry directly through their software. Trend Micro for instance will if you install their latest Trend Micro Office Scan Server patch automatically add this registry entry to all Office Scan Clients so every one running Trend Micro Office Scan will get the update as they ensure full compatibility.

So unless you are running some out-of-date third party security software on your machine you should just go ahead and add the registry entry already or simply download the patch manually in order to get it applied. If you are not running security software from a third-party you should get it through Windows Update automatically without the need for the registry entry.

[Clement Chong]

Haswell and Broadwell users, I think we should just wait for a bit more.

https://newsroom.intel.com/news/inte...reboot-issues/

[trafsta]

Are you asking how to update a BIOS? Which should be obvious. So ,either the question is too basic or to complex for me to understand...

lol The Z97-A is not on Asus' "officially-to-be-updated" list of mobo's. But this user has manually injected the new microcode update from Intel into his Z97 Gaming Edition BIOS file using the previously released BIOS firmware. I have done this sort of thing in the past (like a decade ago lol), so I'm hoping it's not too complicated and that this user could share how he did it for other Z97-A users such as myself.

Eventually Asus might decide to officially release a Z97-A BIOS upgrade to mitigate Spectre... but I am not holding my breath

[Arne Saknussemm]

on the other hand, I definitely do EXPECT a patch for a 500 bucks mainboard.

That... is entirely reasonable!

[JustinThyme]

That... is entirely reasonable!

Whats messed up is I can see a redesign in the chipset totally resolving this but I dont see Intel admitting such as the implications would lead to them being financially responsible for every MOBO rework if issued in the last 20 years!
This is not just theory, Im pretty confident as an EE that this is all it would take.

[Arne Saknussemm]

Be interesting to see what comes out of this....I think lawsuits have already started....

Is this classed as errata?...not covered in warranty...I'm sure they'd like it to be...I'm not sure it should be

They are basically forcing me to OC further to maintain performance

[ELIESEH]

Haswell and Broadwell users, I think we should just wait for a bit more.

https://newsroom.intel.com/news/inte...reboot-issues/

HOW can i accpet this when i paid 1000$ on intel CPU ?!!!!
We are living in a miserable word

[Mattersbro]

*****ASUS advisory page: https://www.asus.com/News/V5urzYAT6myCC1o2 ******

So Asus mainboards prior to 6th gen Intel simply were left out, and will not receive the security patch?

[AikonCWD]

lol The Z97-A is not on Asus' "officially-to-be-updated" list of mobo's. But this user has manually injected the new microcode update from Intel into his Z97 Gaming Edition BIOS file using the previously released BIOS firmware. I have done this sort of thing in the past (like a decade ago lol), so I'm hoping it's not too complicated and that this user could share how he did it for other Z97-A users such as myself.

Eventually Asus might decide to officially release a Z97-A BIOS upgrade to mitigate Spectre... but I am not holding my breath

That is, there is no official way to update our Z97 mobo's. Also ASUS said that they will only update BIOS for mobo's using CPU of 6th, 7th and 8th gen. Our mobo is for 4th gen CPU's, so we won't get any official update from ASUS.

Knowing this, I can use the last official BIOS and inyect the new CPU microcode. It's a bit hard to explain because I'm not an english user and I think it will be a bit hard to me explaining this on english. Anyway... wait. The current Intel's CPU microcode v23 (Haswell, for my i7-4790k) is currently buggy. We need to wait for another update from Intel.

If you wanna need more info on how to edit the official BIOS, I used this:

Repository of Intel's CPU microcode updates: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/dow...code-Data-File (curent file 1-8-18 is buggy)
Tool to extract latest Intel microcode for bios modding: https://www.wimsbios.com/forum/bios-...ng-t10592.html
Python tool to convert BIN microcode into DAT microcodes: https://gist.github.com/aikoncwd/4e6...d19e3f4558ee68 (to perfom integrity checks)
Database to know the CPUID of your current CPU: http://www.cpu-world.com/cgi-bin/CPUID.pl
A tool to edit BIOS and inyect microcodes: https://www.win-raid.com/t154f16-Too...-quot-UBU.html
A tool called AFUDOS to writte the modded BIOS, bypassing ASUS integrity check: https://ami.com/en/resources/resourc...5&type=related

[Brighttail]

That is, there is no official way to update our Z97 mobo's. Also ASUS said that they will only update BIOS for mobo's using CPU of 6th, 7th and 8th gen. Our mobo is for 4th gen CPU's, so we won't get any official update from ASUS.

Knowing this, I can use the last official BIOS and inyect the new CPU microcode. It's a bit hard to explain because I'm not an english user and I think it will be a bit hard to me explaining this on english. Anyway... wait. The current Intel's CPU microcode v23 (Haswell, for my i7-4790k) is currently buggy. We need to wait for another update from Intel.

If you wanna need more info on how to edit the official BIOS, I used this:

Repository of Intel's CPU microcode updates: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/dow...code-Data-File (curent file 1-8-18 is buggy)
Tool to extract latest Intel microcode for bios modding: https://www.wimsbios.com/forum/bios-...ng-t10592.html
Python tool to convert BIN microcode into DAT microcodes: https://gist.github.com/aikoncwd/4e6...d19e3f4558ee68 (to perfom integrity checks)
Database to know the CPUID of your current CPU: http://www.cpu-world.com/cgi-bin/CPUID.pl
A tool to edit BIOS and inyect microcodes: https://www.win-raid.com/t154f16-Too...-quot-UBU.html
A tool called AFUDOS to writte the modded BIOS, bypassing ASUS integrity check: https://ami.com/en/resources/resourc...5&type=related

I'm sure someone will come up with a step by step on here and if not on Fernando's site once we get microcode from intel that is more stable and doesn't impact as much.