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Old 01-06-2018, 12:54 PM   #1
mick
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Meltdown/Spectre patch

This is not for the faint of heart. If you are not computer savvy, you may want to spend the money and have an IT professional do it for you. If you're game, however, here are two websites that should help:

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/how-to...-in-windows-10

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/new...tre-cpu-flaws/

PowerShell is a command-line program that's hidden away down in the Windows engine room for use by said IT professionals. You need to run it with elevated privileges, i.e. as Administrator, and the first website above will show you how.

The second link contains somewhat understandable instructions for downloading and installing the patch. Caveat - it will take hours and it ain't easy. (I've installed the patch on two Windows 10 machines and now I'm going to work on two Windows 7 machines. Please wish me luck.)
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Old 01-07-2018, 12:08 PM   #2
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Windows 7 patch

This is a follow-up to my previous post and pertains to Windows 7.

If you do not have automatic updates activated, you should manually install the following patch: "2018-01 Security Monthly Quality Rollup for Windows 7"

If you have a problem, it's probably your anti-virus software. I use Microsoft's Security Essentials and had no problem but McAfee and other AV programs may prevent the patch from being applied.

Apparently, that's about all you can do now and it only protects you from Meltdown. For Spectre, we'll all need firmware patches from our hardware vendors.
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Old 01-08-2018, 01:47 PM   #3
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For those who might be interested, this is a brief explanation of Meltdown and Spectre written by a UNIX "kernel" programmer. (BTW, in the computer world, they don't come much smarter than kernel programmers.)

http://lists.dragonflybsd.org/piperm...ry/313758.html

Here are few selected quotes if you're not interested in wading through the heavy technical stuff:

"Meltdown is an Intel-specific bug. AMD is immune."

"What Meltdown is is basically a FULL KERNEL MEMORY disclosure bug. An unprivileged user program can essentially discern the contents of all of kernel memory on an Intel CPU. The bug works because Intel CPUs will do speculative reads across protection domains, allowing the user program to massage the memory and branch prediction cache to cause a speculative read of kernel memory (even though it crosses the protection domain) followed by a speculative conditional execution. Timing can then be used to scan for and distinguish the contents of kernel memory."

"I should note that we kernel programmers ... are all pretty pissed off at Intel right now. Intel's press releases have also been HIGHLY DECEPTIVE. In particular, they are starting to talk up 'microcode updates', but those are mitigations for the Spectre bug, not for the Meltdown bug."

"Spectre is another bug, far more difficult to exploit than Meltdown, which leaks information from other processes or the kernel based on those other processes or kernel doing speculative reads and executions which are partially managed by the originating user process. Spectre does NOT involve a protection domain violation like Meltdown, so the Meltdown mitigation cannot mitigate Spectre."

"These bugs (both Meltdown and Spectre) really have to be fixed in the CPUs themselves. Meltdown is the 1000 pound gorilla. I won't be buying any new Intel chips that require the mitigation. I'm really pissed off at Intel."

So, if you have an Intel CPU and you're running Windows 10 or 7, you really need to install the latest security update from Microsoft. (I don't know what you would do if you're still running XP.) It's only a partial fix but it's all we can do at this point. If you have an AMD CPU, then you've dodged one bullet but not the other. If there's any "good" news (relative use of the word), it's that these hardware flaws are difficult to exploit and folks like us won't be the targets, although we may be collateral damage. The perpetrators will be Russian hackers (or their ilk) going after sensitive government / corporate / financial institution / power grid information.
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Old 01-10-2018, 08:52 AM   #4
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Curious. Very curious.

https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/...-of-stock.aspx
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Old 01-10-2018, 09:10 AM   #5
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For those who use Linux (my OS of choice), Linus Torvalds and his team released a new kernel overnight that addresses these bugs, to the degree they can be addressed with software. One of the projects on my to-do list is to run RDSS on Linux using VirtualBox. When I get around to it, I'll post the instructions on Pace and Cap.
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Old 01-10-2018, 11:45 AM   #6
Ted Craven
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Thanks Mick for all this! It's on my To Do list, or To Check list that my Win 10 computers get automatically updated. I'm checking with P&C's web host how their servers are being patched.

I read how Linus Torvalds (Linux godfather) reamed out Intel for not knowing this issue, or not caring.

I'll wait to see what Intel's CEO has to say about the curious timing re his sale of stock.

Please do let us know how Virtual Box on Linux (and what flavour) manages to run RDSS, and presumably some kind of spreadsheet program and browser.

Ted
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