Real fixes for Spectre and Meltdown?

Discussion in 'General Linux Discussion' started by cloasters, Jan 9, 2018.

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  1. ThunderRd

    ThunderRd Irreverent Query Chairman Staff Member

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    ThunderRd, Jan 22, 2018
    #21
  2. Kaitain

    Kaitain Active Member

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    The fixes for Mint 17.x are also out, along with various other bits... https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3496

    Um... I may have misread but if you're trying to upgrade in place from 17.x to 18.x, that's, er, brave?
    Kaitain, Jan 22, 2018
    #22
  3. porporme

    porporme Member

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    Yea-what he said!
    porporme, Jan 22, 2018
    #23
  4. cloasters

    cloasters Moderator

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    Thank you Kaitain! You are da man!
    cloasters, Jan 23, 2018
    #24
  5. Kaitain

    Kaitain Active Member

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    ... of course, knowing that the fixes are out doesn't mean I've applied any of them :p
    Kaitain, Jan 23, 2018
    #25
  6. cloasters

    cloasters Moderator

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    Same goes for me, as well! With very great help from ThunderRd I've been doing a few typing in the scary Terminal zone thangs.

    Saw a very recent squib saying how, yet again, or perhaps still how terrible Intel has been with its ""updates"" to fix Intel's stupidity/underhanded greed from Linus Torvalds himself.
    cloasters, Jan 24, 2018
    #26
  7. Kaitain

    Kaitain Active Member

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    Oh, this one? https://lkml.org/lkml/2018/1/21/192

    Not his finest work. Needs more ****. Also read https://lkml.org/lkml/2018/1/22/598 and https://security.googleblog.com/2018/01/more-details-about-mitigations-for-cpu_4.html

    Anyway, I'm not falling over myself to apply patches to either of my laptops. Ignoring the fact that my main laptop is now 8 years old, with the family's "new" laptop turning six in April, it seems to me that the more immediately effective solution is, as ever, is to control who gets to run what on my machine. If that means blocking javascript, and only whitelisting particular scrips on particular sites... well, I already do that.
    Kaitain, Jan 24, 2018
    #27
  8. ThunderRd

    ThunderRd Irreverent Query Chairman Staff Member

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    ThunderRd, Jan 24, 2018
    #28
  9. Kaitain

    Kaitain Active Member

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    I wonder whether the family 6 model 37 westmere unit in my main laptop will see some love...
    Kaitain, Jan 24, 2018
    #29
  10. cloasters

    cloasters Moderator

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    Scheisse du Mensch! I have not done any "updates" for my processor. Looks like that was the right move. Fscking Intel. Learning to hate you, learning to hate all about you!

    Yes, that was the Linus post I was referring to. The latest from David Woodhouse adds more confusion. The CUTE .pdf from Intel seems to mean I have a Skylake proc. The info is undecipherable for me. Maybe I should just stop using computers--I surely can't understand what I'm supposed to.

    I know, starting tomorrow I'm building my own CPU! How hard can it be?
    cloasters, Jan 25, 2018
    #30
  11. ThunderRd

    ThunderRd Irreverent Query Chairman Staff Member

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    George, show me the output of this:

    apt-get install -s intel-microcode
    ThunderRd, Jan 25, 2018
    #31
  12. ThunderRd

    ThunderRd Irreverent Query Chairman Staff Member

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    An interesting overview by a well-known security geek named Colin Percival, of FreeBSD. Pay attention to the section called
    Understanding the attacks. It explains the nature of the security holes present in Meltdown and Spectre, for non-experts:

    http://www.daemonology.net/blog/2018-01-17-some-thoughts-on-spectre-and-meltdown.html
    FWIW, Percival is a certified expert in this area, known to have gone toe to toe with Linus a few times over the years. Linus was a bit dismissive when Percival discovered a similar vulnerability in the Pentium 4 some years ago, and there were some flames as a result.
    Last edited: Jan 26, 2018
    ThunderRd, Jan 26, 2018
    #32
  13. cloasters

    cloasters Moderator

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    Thanks a lot for providing further info about this "fun" in your post, Thunder! Clearer as mud, sorry for the un-intelligence on my part.

    $ sudo apt-get install -s intel microcode
    [sudo] password for myname:
    Reading package lists... Done
    Building dependency tree
    Reading state information... Done
    E: Unable to locate package intel
    E: Unable to locate package microcode

    Er, that's:
    [sudo] password for my name:
    Reading package lists... Done
    Building dependency tree
    Reading state information... Done
    The following extra packages will be installed:
    iucode-tool
    The following NEW packages will be installed:
    intel-microcode iucode-tool
    0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
    Inst iucode-tool (1.0.1-1 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty [amd64])
    Inst intel-microcode (3.20180108.0+really20170707ubuntu14.04.1 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty-updates [amd64])
    Conf iucode-tool (1.0.1-1 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty [amd64])
    Conf intel-microcode (3.20180108.0+really20170707ubuntu14.04.1 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty-updates [amd64])
    Last edited: Jan 27, 2018
    cloasters, Jan 26, 2018
    #33
  14. Kaitain

    Kaitain Active Member

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    There needs to be a hyphen between "intel" and "microcode"

    sudo apt-get install -s intel-microcode
    Kaitain, Jan 26, 2018
    #34
  15. cloasters

    cloasters Moderator

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    Thank you very much, Kaitain! Your suggestion did the trick.
    cloasters, Jan 27, 2018
    #35
  16. ThunderRd

    ThunderRd Irreverent Query Chairman Staff Member

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    And...?
    ThunderRd, Jan 27, 2018
    #36
  17. cloasters

    cloasters Moderator

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    Er, that's:
    [sudo] password for my name:
    Reading package lists... Done
    Building dependency tree
    Reading state information... Done
    The following extra packages will be installed:
    iucode-tool
    The following NEW packages will be installed:
    intel-microcode iucode-tool
    0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
    Inst iucode-tool (1.0.1-1 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty [amd64])
    Inst intel-microcode (3.20180108.0+really20170707ubuntu14.04.1 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty-updates [amd64])
    Conf iucode-tool (1.0.1-1 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty [amd64])
    Conf intel-microcode (3.20180108.0+really20170707ubuntu14.04.1 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty-updates [amd64])
    Last edited: Yesterday at 9:44 PM


    Put it in the wrong place. My bad. Thank you TR!
    cloasters, Jan 28, 2018
    #37
  18. ThunderRd

    ThunderRd Irreverent Query Chairman Staff Member

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    Show me:

    Code:
    dmesg | grep "microcode updated"
    ThunderRd, Jan 28, 2018
    #38
  19. cloasters

    cloasters Moderator

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    OK
    myname@myname~ $ dmesg | grep "microcode updated"
    myname@myname ~ $


    Thank you ThunderRd!
    cloasters, Jan 30, 2018
    #39
  20. Kaitain

    Kaitain Active Member

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    Do you get a "microcode updated" string on Mint?

    For added confirmation, do:

    dmesg | grep - i "microcode"

    It should spit out a few lines showing that the microcode driver has loaded and confirming which version of microcode is in use. Although the same info is also available in /proc/cpuinfo.
    Kaitain, Jan 30, 2018
    #40
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