Meltdown, Spectre: unfixable security flaws

[Pepi]

Appears the days of the 32 bit hardware are DONE

[Spearmint2]

viewtopic.php?f=58&t=260764

https://www.cnet.com/forums/discussions ... them-down/

[thx-1138]

http://kroah.com/log/blog/2018/01/06/meltdown-status/
Straight out from the horse's mouth...

[phd21]

Hi Everyone,

FYI:
​How Linux is dealing with Meltdown and Spectre Jan. 4 2018
"Linux can deal with Meltdown and Spectre, the fundamental chip security problems, but that doesn't mean Linux's developers are happy about it."
http://www.zdnet.com/article/how-linux- ... d-spectre/

Woo-yay, Meltdown CPU fixes are here. Now, Spectre flaws will haunt tech industry for years
Countermeasures to protect apps from attack, Francisco 5 Jan 2018
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/0 ... explained/

A Word About Spectre And Meltdown, 5th January, 2018
"You'll have seen in the press over the last couple of days that a serious security bug has been discovered which exists in many processors made by Intel and others over the past decade. There are 2 bugs, that have been named Spectre and Meltdown. They're serious, and could potentially allow malicious software to access information on your PC. Although the bug is in the processor itself, its effects can be largely mitigated by a patch to the operating system. If you're worried, don't be. Almost every computer in the world is affected by these bugs, and the chances of you being personally targeted by hackers as a result of it is pretty much non-existent."
https://www.techsupportalert.com/conten ... ltdown.htm


TIP: There are sometimes options in the computer's Bios for allowing remote support, and or remote management, turn them off, save bios changes, reboot (restart).

Hope this helps ...

[mike acker]

OK, relief is at hand, namely on January, 9:
https://insights.ubuntu.com/2018/01/04/ ... abilities/

Apparently those Ubuntu devs have worked through the Christmas and New Year holidays.... Not much fun for them.

Some things that stand out: it seems that for Ubuntu 16.04.x (and therefore Mint 18.x) only the 4.4 kernel series and the 4.13 kernel series will be fixed. Furthermore, these fixes are only for 64-bit kernels.

hmmmmmm...
I'm running LMDE/2 which uses kernel 3.16

however: I use only AMD chips which are apparently less vulnerable

[Portreve]

What is with these non-stop Meltdown and Spectre threads on LMF?

I'm not saying M & S is a non-issue, but it's like everyone is just going around screaming "The sky is falling! The sky is falling! OMG!"

It's a good thing it's just this, and not something causing true despondency. Can you imagine the number of spontaneous suicides we'd be seeing?

[mike acker]

What is with these non-stop Meltdown and Spectre threads on LMF?

I'm not saying M & S is a non-issue, but it's like everyone is just going around screaming "The sky is falling! The sky is falling! OMG!"

It's a good thing it's just this, and not something causing true despondency. Can you imagine the number of spontaneous suicides we'd be seeing?

good post

i was thinking of adding a note to the other thread on M&S but I'll put it here instead as i made the original post -- not that that matters at all, but,--

Possibly useful Info:

Ubuntu Updates for the Meltdown / Spectre Vulnerabilities

excerpt

Ubuntu users of the 64-bit x86 architecture (aka, amd64) can expect updated kernels by the original January 9, 2018 coordinated release date, and sooner if possible. Updates will be available for:

Ubuntu 17.10 (Artful) — Linux 4.13 HWE
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial) — Linux 4.4 (and 4.4 HWE)
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty) — Linux 3.13
Ubuntu 12.04 ESM** (Precise) — Linux 3.2
Note that an Ubuntu Advantage license is required for the 12.04 ESM kernel update, as Ubuntu 12.04 LTS is past its end-of-life

originally I thought just the 4.4 and 4.13 kernels were being updated but when I googled this morning I found the above note

looks like the 3.13 kernel is going to be updated afterall; hopefully us LMDE/2 folks will receive the update,-- except I'm showing kernel 3.16 not 3.13

[Portreve]

Well, at the moment, I'm running a 4.10 kernel, so it should be fairly interesting to see what winds up happening.

[DAMIEN1307]

hi portreve...ive recently been told by the CEO of another linux distribution that the 4:10 series kernel is in acuality the 4.4 hwe kernel...why they do not just tells us that is a wonder to me, but i trust the source as he tells me that is what my other linux distro is based on...DAMIEN