SAN FRANCISCO — Firmware patches rolled out by Intel earlier this month to address the Meltdown and Spectre processor security vulnerabilities are flawed and cause computers to reboot more frequently, Intel said. The chip giant advised its customers and ecosystem partners to stop installing the patches.
In a statement posted on Intel's website Monday (Jan. 22), Navin Shenoy, executive vice president and general manager of Intel's data center group, said Intel over the weekend began rolling out an early version of an updated solution to partners for testing. The company plans to make a final release version available once the testing is complete, Shenoy said.
Navin Shenoy
"I apologize for any disruption this change in guidance may cause," Shenoy wrote. "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."
The issues with the patches, first reported over a week ago, compound the black eye that Intel has received from the discovery of Meltdown and Spectre. The vulnerabilities, identified last year by researchers from Google and other organizations, expose the possibility for hackers to use software analysis techniques to exploit a technique called speculative execution found in processors from Intel, as well as from AMD and chips that use the ARM architecture.
After word leaked to the press that the patches created to address the vulnerabilities slow the performance of older computer systems, a coalition of hardware and software companies — including Intel, AMD, ARM, Apple, Microsoft and others — disclosed their existence earlier this month.
— Dylan McGrath is the editor-in-chief of EE Times.
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