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Thread: Specter Meltdown still an issue 2019?

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    Specter Meltdown still an issue 2019?

    I was wondering if that was the reason why intel removed hyper threading from new gen CPU's. Or just a cheap move I believe they have a partial hardware fix. I'm not sure if AMD are as affected or even how significant both vulnerabilities are to be honest. That is the onyl reason of me even considering upgrading my own cpu.

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    Re: Specter Meltdown still an issue 2019?

    They are not an issue for an average home user now and they never have been. Provided you keep your OS up to date and any antivirus/antimalware also up to date. That's the short version. Thye were blown out of all proportion by the press and in particular the tech press. They are only a problem for a certain type of business.
    "In a perfect world... spammers would get caught, go to jail, and share a cell with many men who have enlarged their penises, taken Viagra and are looking for a new relationship."

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    Re: Specter Meltdown still an issue 2019?

    Quote Originally Posted by rob4001 View Post
    I was wondering if that was the reason why intel removed hyper threading from new gen CPU's. Or just a cheap move I believe they have a partial hardware fix. I'm not sure if AMD are as affected or even how significant both vulnerabilities are to be honest. That is the onyl reason of me even considering upgrading my own cpu.
    As badass says, the issue isn't as serious for home users (although it's wrong to say it's not an issue at all, as the security vulnerability is there and is exploitable), and as long as you've kept your computer up to date (including BIOS updates as some of the mitigations are in firmware, not software) you're good.

    Intel *haven't* removed HT from their new CPUs - it's still present in the top-tier Core i9 processors, and the low end Pentium Gold processors. The vulnerability - or at least the widely published ones - are unrelated to HT/SMT (although I believe there have been less-well-publicised exploits found subsequently that do target SMT).

    One of the exploits doesn't affect AMD at all, but some others do. AMD systems also require software and firmware mitigations to address the problems. All of the mitigations have some performance penalty, but AIUI the mitigation for the Intel-only exploit has the largest performance penalty. That said, for consumer usage patterns the impact is negligible.

    AFAIK neither AMD not Intel has a hardware fix ready in production silicon. I'm sure they'll make a big song and dance about it when they do finally produce silicon with hard fixes for the exploits (although by then there are bound to be more exploits discovered that *aren't* fixed in the hardware...)

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    Re: Specter Meltdown still an issue 2019?

    Quote Originally Posted by scaryjim View Post
    AFAIK neither AMD not Intel has a hardware fix ready in production silicon. I'm sure they'll make a big song and dance about it when they do finally produce silicon with hard fixes for the exploits (although by then there are bound to be more exploits discovered that *aren't* fixed in the hardware...)
    Apparently the i9 Coffee Lake refresh processors do have certain hardware mitigation against certain variants of the Spectre & Meltdown exploits. It's explained & tested in this Anandtech article:

    https://www.anandtech.com/show/13659...re-mitigations

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    Re: Specter Meltdown still an issue 2019?

    Wrong. Even though several chip manufacturing companies and OS vendors have addressed this vulnerability through various security fixes and advisories, there are still new variants of Spectre being discovered. Since these are hardware flaws, they won’t be completely gone until the newest generation of processors are ubiquitously used. So, 2019 or not, Meltdown and Spectre can still haunt you.

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