As Intel CEO Brian Krzanich emphasized in his Security-First Pledge, Intel is committed to transparency in reporting progress in handling the Google Project Zero exploits.

We have received reports from a few customers of higher system reboots after applying firmware updates. Specifically, these systems are running Intel Broadwell and Haswell CPUs for both client and data center. We are working quickly with these customers to understand, diagnose and address this reboot issue. If this requires a revised firmware update from Intel, we will distribute that update through the normal channels. We are also working directly with data center customers to discuss the issue.

End-users should continue to apply updates recommended by their system and operating system providers.

More: Security Exploits and Intel Products (Press Kit) | Security Research Findings (Intel.com)

By Navin Shenoy,
Executive vice president and general manager of the Data Center Group at Intel Corporation.

Source: https://newsroom.intel.com/news/inte...reboot-issues/


UPDATE 1/17:

Over the past several days, Intel has made further progress to address the exploits known as “Spectre” and “Meltdown.” We are continuing to support our customers through this process and we remain focused on doing so. As we continue these efforts, I would like to express my appreciation to many of our partners, including Dell, HPE, HPI, Lenovo and Microsoft, for joining our Security-First Pledge.

More: Security Exploits and Intel Products (Press Kit) | Security Research Findings (Intel.com)

I’ll be covering two topics in this blog post: our progress in rolling out firmware updates for the exploits, as well as addressing the reboot issue I discussed last week; and initial data from the benchmarking we are doing on data center platforms.

Firmware Updates

We have now issued firmware updates for 90 percent of Intel CPUs introduced in the past five years, but we have more work to do. As I noted in my blog post last week, while the firmware updates are effective at mitigating exposure to the security issues, customers have reported more frequent reboots on firmware updated systems.

As part of this, we have determined that similar behavior occurs on other products in some configurations, including Ivy Bridge-, Sandy Bridge-, Skylake-, and Kaby Lake-based platforms. We have reproduced these issues internally and are making progress toward identifying the root cause. In parallel, we will be providing beta microcode to vendors for validation by next week.

For those customers looking for additional guidance, we have provided more information on this Intel.com Security Center site. I will also continue to provide regular updates on the status...

Read more: https://newsroom.intel.com/news/firm...enter-systems/


UPDATE 1/22:

As we start the week, I want to provide an update on the reboot issues we reported Jan. 11. We have now identified the root cause for Broadwell and Haswell platforms, and made good progress in developing a solution to address it. Over the weekend, we began rolling out an early version of the updated solution to industry partners for testing, and we will make a final release available once that testing has been completed.

Based on this, we are updating our guidance for customers and partners:

• We recommend that OEMs, cloud service providers, system manufacturers, software vendors and end users stop deployment of current versions, as they may introduce higher than expected reboots and other unpredictable system behavior. For the full list of platforms, see the Intel.com Security Center site.
• We ask that our industry partners focus efforts on testing early versions of the updated solution so we can accelerate its release. We expect to share more details on timing later this week.
• We continue to urge all customers to vigilantly maintain security best practice and for consumers to keep systems up-to-date.

I apologize for any disruption this change in guidance may cause. The security of our products is critical for Intel, our customers and partners, and for me, personally. I assure you we are working around the clock to ensure we are addressing these issues.

I will keep you updated as we learn more and thank you for your patience.

More: Security Exploits and Intel Products (Press Kit) | Security Research Findings (Intel.com)

Navin Shenoy,
Executive vice president and general manager of the Data Center Group at Intel Corporation.

Source: https://newsroom.intel.com/news/root...-and-partners/

Posted By: Brink
12 Jan 2018