Intel Bug - Game Changer

[iceberg]

"Everyone Is Affected": Why The Implications Of The Intel "Bug" Are Staggering | Zero Hedge

in a nutshell, processors do what is called "speculative processing" where it guesses what commands are coming next to speed things up. it works well. only now there's a ring 0 bug (protected architecture layer) that can expose pretty much everything in a not good manner.

the fix is to software patch it to turn it off.

only now large VM farms are going to take a 5-20% plus hit in performance which is HUGE in the IT world.

 

[depotoo]

Is this the one that has to do with the kernels? If so, I read its fix will slow processing down by 30%.

 

[Marion Morrison]

Solution: Buy AMD!

Grr, I wish I would have bought stock in them. Probably not too late for some people to make some quick bucks.

Keep in mind, the mean price is between $12-$20. (or thereabouts)

 

[iceberg]

Solution: Buy AMD!

Grr, I wish I would have bought stock in them. Probably not too late for some people to make some quick bucks.

Keep in mind, the mean price is between $12-$20. (or thereabouts)

do more research. AMD is likely hit by specter but how hard it is to execute is not known yet.

basically *all processors* that do speculative processing are at risk. i don't expect AMD to keep the smug face on for long.

 

[depotoo]

Solution: Buy AMD!

Grr, I wish I would have bought stock in them. Probably not too late for some people to make some quick bucks.

Keep in mind, the mean price is between $12-$20. (or thereabouts)

I have always favored intel for its processing and am pretty upset about this “flaw”. Won’t be long for class actions I feel sure.

 

[iceberg]

Is this the one that has to do with the kernels? If so, I read its fix will slow processing down by 30%.

pretty much. the fix is to turn off the predictive processing (speculative) and you're "secure" again. (in as much as a software patch is secure for hardware) and if you have a major VM farm - you just got hosed pretty hard.

 

[Marion Morrison]

Is this the one that has to do with the kernels? If so, I read its fix will slow processing down by 30%.

pretty much. the fix is to turn off the predictive processing (speculative) and you're "secure" again. (in as much as a software patch is secure for hardware) and if you have a major VM farm - you just got hosed pretty hard.

If your motherboard's BIOS even has that option.

 

[iceberg]

Is this the one that has to do with the kernels? If so, I read its fix will slow processing down by 30%.

pretty much. the fix is to turn off the predictive processing (speculative) and you're "secure" again. (in as much as a software patch is secure for hardware) and if you have a major VM farm - you just got hosed pretty hard.

If your motherboard's BIOS even has that option.

microsoft is coming out with a patch that is a reg entry to turn it off.

like i said - software patches only last so long.

 

[Marion Morrison]

Solution: Buy AMD!

Grr, I wish I would have bought stock in them. Probably not too late for some people to make some quick bucks.

Keep in mind, the mean price is between $12-$20. (or thereabouts)

do more research. AMD is likely hit by specter but how hard it is to execute is not known yet.

basically *all processors* that do speculative processing are at risk. i don't expect AMD to keep the smug face on for long.

Google Pitches In On x86 Kernel Bug - 3 Variants, Intel & ARM Chips Mostly Affected, Near Zero Risk To AMD

Near zero risk to AMD.

 

[iceberg]

Solution: Buy AMD!

Grr, I wish I would have bought stock in them. Probably not too late for some people to make some quick bucks.

Keep in mind, the mean price is between $12-$20. (or thereabouts)

I have always favored intel for its processing and am pretty upset about this “flaw”. Won’t be long for class actions I feel sure.

already talk of potentially having to recall a decade of processors but even if so, the fix is to hardware disable it as it stands for now. but yea, this is a huge game changer people don't really fully understand yet. well, non IT people.

if you manage a VM / Server farm, you're crying now and already hitting the 100* vodka.

 

[iceberg]

Solution: Buy AMD!

Grr, I wish I would have bought stock in them. Probably not too late for some people to make some quick bucks.

Keep in mind, the mean price is between $12-$20. (or thereabouts)

do more research. AMD is likely hit by specter but how hard it is to execute is not known yet.

basically *all processors* that do speculative processing are at risk. i don't expect AMD to keep the smug face on for long.

Google Pitches In On x86 Kernel Bug - 3 Variants, Intel & ARM Chips Mostly Affected, Near Zero Risk To AMD

Near zero risk to AMD.

i'll stop asking you to wait and see cause you're pom poming for AMD right now. my guess is they are impacted but it may not be as easy to hack.

 

[Marion Morrison]

Solution: Buy AMD!

Grr, I wish I would have bought stock in them. Probably not too late for some people to make some quick bucks.

Keep in mind, the mean price is between $12-$20. (or thereabouts)

I have always favored intel for its processing and am pretty upset about this “flaw”. Won’t be long for class actions I feel sure.

already talk of potentially having to recall a decade of processors but even if so, the fix is to hardware disable it as it stands for now. but yea, this is a huge game changer people don't really fully understand yet. well, non IT people.

if you manage a VM / Server farm, you're crying now and already hitting the 100* vodka.

A decade goes back to Nehalem or Core2. Maybe even Pentium 4.

 

[MarathonMike]

From what I read, it isn't like a hacker could crash your system but rather be able to read kernel protected data like passwords. So there are two parts to the problem 1. an Intel-based computer is vulnerable to protected information being read by a hacker and 2. The fix will most likely be in the OS which WILL slow down Intel based computers and COULD still slow down AMD based computers running that "fixed" OS. It depends on how they implement the patch.

 

[iceberg]

From what I read, it isn't like a hacker could crash your system but rather be able to read kernel protected data like passwords. So there are two parts to the problem 1. an Intel-based computer is vulnerable to protected information being read by a hacker and 2. The fix will most likely be in the OS which WILL slow down Intel based computers and COULD still slow down AMD based computers running that "fixed" OS. It depends on how they implement the patch.

from what i understand it's Ring 0 in nature and you don't get more protected than that. if they have access to Ring 0 it's huge.

 

[iceberg]

day 2 of this and microsoft jumped the gun to get the patch out ASAP and screwed the rest of the industry by not providing enough information on what they were doing, when the reg key is needed and how the patching will work.

but looks like even AMD is a potential spectre target.

 

[TheTechnologist]

Solution: Buy AMD!

Grr, I wish I would have bought stock in them. Probably not too late for some people to make some quick bucks.

Keep in mind, the mean price is between $12-$20. (or thereabouts)

AMD has good server class processors? Nope.

 

[TheTechnologist]

The slow down is not across the board, and so a VM farm could probably optimize for this: Meltdown and Spectre FAQ: Fix for Intel CPU flaws could slow down PCs and Macs

Issues are small system calls the most, that's where the double digit performance is hit. Per Intel.

 

[TheTechnologist]

Actually, here's the data on the performance more directly

Initial Benchmarks Of The Performance Impact Resulting From Linux's x86 Security Changes - Phoronix