Windows 10: Updated Firmware Available for 6th, 7th and 8th Gen. Intel Processors

They didn't mention the Haswell (4th gen) CPU's in the announcement.

 

Still pending.

 

My Dell Precision 3520 with Xeon 3.0 got an update today. Was dated 18 Feb for release.

 

In that white paper, Intel almost seems to be acknowledging that Google's "Retpoline" fix is a better approach for mitigating variant 2 of Spectre. Retpoline has already been implemented in the latest Linux kernel. So if you have a computer that runs a distribution of Linux, you don't even need a CPU microcode update. And you'll be protected even if the processor in your computer is many generations old. It would be interesting to know why Microsoft chose not to go this route.

 

BIOS 1003 has version 7C, that is not the new microcode, which is 84. The new BIOS will be > 1003, when Asus releases it. it will probably take at least a week.

 

Those are still in beta.

 

Getting a little confusing now but I think I’ve got it

My current Bios is no 1003 dated 21/12/2017

Available Bios updates from Asus is 0802-17/11/2017 and 1003-02/01/2018

Any Spectre-related motherboard BIOS will be dated from 08/02/2018 or later

Conclusion, wait until Asus releases another Bios update *Smile

 

Yeah there is nothing for my z170 pro gamer motherboard either. Latest BIOS is 3501 which pre dates all this drama. They were supposed to deliver 3601 but I think without any notice from ASUS they didn't release due to the problems the new microcode was causing. So I guess just need to wait on maybe 3701.

In a strange way I wish my system would not get a new BIOS and then I wouldn't have to worry about updating as there is nothing I can do other than rely on windows updates to patch it in best way possible. But I guess being z170 and a skylake it will get an update to BIOS at some point soon and then knowing it's out there I will feel self compelled to do the BIOS update. even though I dsilike the idea of having to do so and still stand by my assertion that if MS relies on the public to be doing BIOS / firmware updates to protect themselves then it just ain't going to get done. The overwhelming majority will be unaware of this security issue and not even have a clue about BIOS or even it's existence on a PC.

 

What's crazy about all this is that a CPU microcode update (and in extension a BIOS update) is not even needed for mitigating the second variant of Spectre. The retpoline fix described in that Intel white paper is being implemented in Linux, but for some reason it's not being implemented in Windows.

 

Software fixes can easily be software unfixed.....

 

Protection against Spectre variant 2 can be disabled by making a few minor changes to the Windows registry.

 

I think it behooves Microsoft to release these patches after adequate testing (maybe a few months) similarly to how the Linux kernel updates microcode. We see that MS has done this in the past. I have four PCs in my household that likely won't get BIOS updates.

It's unfortunate for them, but if something big like WannaCry happens because of the Spectre issue, a lot of the blame will fall on MS for not better protecting its users.

 

So basically Skylake CPU firmware was re released without any modifications at least that what I get from reading Intel document

 

I had to uninstall this update as it was causing my AMD graphics driver to crash at the drop of a hat, watching a video on youtube it would crash, play quake live it would crash etc. These crashes only started after installing this update, I even tried removing the graphics driver with DDU in safe mode & installing the latest driver.

 

... and this is the problem with software fixes - particularly kernel hooks. AMD will have to update their driver now as I'm sure the original was released based on "bare" kernel calls. Retopoline will work only in Linux as their drivers are kernel driven mostly.