Windows 10: Intel Issues Updates to Protect Systems from Security Exploits

Life intervenes! *Smile In my last post I didn't mean to redownload the file from Asus though; only that you needed to unzip the downloaded directory created. In the unzipped directory the .CAP file in their should work. In the BIOS EZ Flash 3 Utility you should be able to see the USB and the directory the .CAP file is in and select with the keyboard arrow keys the .CAP file, then press the keyboard Enter key to begin the process. Their will be a progress bar shown and it does take a couple of minutes during which time you don't want to shut down the system or touch the keyboard.

 

I just read through five pages of this "technical" thread. I've come to the conclusion that the entire computing world is screwed. Does anyone expect my dad, who is 77 years old to search an OEM's website for a mother board firmware update to correct the flaw in the CPU. First he has to determine the specs of his PC. That ain't happening. How many dads, moms, grand parents are there in the world in this position? Is Intel, Microsoft, and the likes ready to answer the calls from these users to fix their PCs? Not! Heck, the average user wouldn't even have the knowledge or patience to try and preform a firmware update to their PC. So what's the solution? Everyone scraps their current PCs and runs out to the stores 3 months from now to buy new PCs.

 

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree, that is an excuse, a large majority of our members are up there, in their number of days on our planet, some of them are even Microsoft MVPs:




It is just lack of interest in technic, but the same can be said about modern car owners too.
I find in my daily life, it's those young smartphone zombies, that have no idea about computer tech and security, not the older generation.

 

You show me a statistic but that doesn't mean it's fact. Then there's "reality". The reality is most people will not update their PCs. Specifically the firmware. The effectiveness of past exploits proves that history is true.

 

unfortunately I agree many won’t do these updates. It’s pretty confusing. I’m still not sure what we should be doing. Not great with tech (as much as I love it) but I’m still the go to guy among family and friends for tech issues whether it be phones, iPads, pc. Which shows the low awareness/competence in my circles least.

I’ve installed the cumulative update and then tried the BIOS update (which seeing as ASUS shows it released in summer 2017 causes a question mark). But stumbled despite some much appreciated help. I will try again but am already losing the desire to follow it through. And that’s before the intel management interface. Makes me wish I had a surface machine now as I know it would all be taken care of by windows update. I hope that windows update will eventually plug the holes!

 

The solution, as previously mentioned, is for Microsoft to push out the microcode update through Windows Update. They have already done that for their Surface devices.

 

That's just it, it is their devices. It is not now and never should be up to Microsoft to be updating the microcode on any device but their own.

Do you realize how many different variations of motherboards use the same chipset alone? If that sort of thing happened where Microsoft tried to push out a microcode update to all the different motherboard chipsets/models, how many do you think would end up bricked? One would be too many, but you can bet that it would number in thousands (if not hundreds of thousands or millions even).

 

In continuing to look into this Intel problem and the Asus Z170-Pro the problem I have is this page at Asus shows the problem to be solved through "update by ME tool" but the tool application will not run but invokes a message "can't open AsIO.sys !! (2)". The only Asus software I have on this machine is for the sound card. May need to uninstall that first before this program will run. I'll check that later and reply here on what I find but going out now.

 

Yes I tried that to run this too. The instructions are so vague as to what to do. I’m not on pc at moment but I chose something to run, it might of been something like MEupdate.exe, there were numerous files extracted but that sounded the right one. But it errored out, can’t remember the message but it was different to your one.

 

Hi,

These micro code updates are for CPU's, not motherboards or their chipsets actually. Microsoft also already updates micro codes through WU service.
Now for who has to update these is open for debate but in this particular case I know Intel's partners will handle their share of it through their support services.

Cheers, *Wink

 

Even so, there are still major issues users are experiencing. Just go to Microsoft's own community forms and you'll see the postings mounting since Jan 3 when their update was first pushed out. I still haven't heard or read that Microsoft has even acknowledge their update is failing for many people.

 

It might cause problems. But if Intel and Microsoft think that most people are actually going to do the update on their own, then they're completely delusional.

 

Hi,

That driver is part of Asus' ROG AI Suite which throws an error. No idea why it would do that when you update the MEI firmware.

Cheers, *Wink

 

Getting a little confused. I have an old Asus X99-A with the latest BIOS date of 12/4/17 which I updated a couple of weeks ago. I have an i7-5820K. Just wondering why when I ran the detection tool, it came back that I was not vulnerable. I made sure I was running the latest detection tool and ran it again. Ran the GUI and the console version of the tool. I am probably missing something, but I wonder why it's telling me I'm okay.

 

Hi,

You flashed the bios which had a time stamp of 12/4/2017. Assuming the tool you ran was Intel's SA00086 it now tells you the machine is no longer vulnerable as far as the MEI part goes.

In order to know wether it's secure for the other threats (Spectre and Meltdown) you need to run the Powershell commands that have been discussed here.

This thread would be more pertinent to your question:

Flaws found in Intel Management Engine (ME), TXE and SPS

Cheers, *Wink