Huge hardware security flaw exposed on all modern processors in the past week. Meltdown and Spectre exploits allow execution of malicious code by exploiting the way virtual memory is handled at the processor and kernel level. Spectre CPU bugs, that all modern processors are affected by, involve how code branches and how arrays are bounded but will be easy to patch without a performance hit. Meltdown bug,
which impacts every Intel CPU from the two decades, on the other hand will require irreversible OS patches that will cause
performance hits of 5-30% depending on how kernel intensive the CPU activity is. This WILL affect all Intel based Windows, Linux and MacOS machines. This is probably THE worst bug in the last decade.
Some articles that explain the technical details.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018...ecurity-flaws/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comment...ctre_meltdown/
http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/i...-patch-3365861
https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/3/16...ws-macos-linux
Benchmarks on how bad performance will be
Quote:
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Crucially, these updates to both Linux and Windows will incur a performance hit on Intel products. The effects are still being benchmarked, however we're looking at a ballpark figure of five to 30 per cent slow down, depending on the task and the processor model. More recent Intel chips have features – such as PCID – to reduce the performance hit. Your mileage may vary.
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https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/0...u_design_flaw/
Intel CEO sold all his shares he was allowed to once he found out about the problem
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/04/inte...ity-flaws.html
AMD is not affected by Meltdown so plan your upgrades accordingly.