Serious Intel Design Flaw

[Jahona]

Source: http://www.pcgamer.com/serious-inte...-but-probably-wont-affect-gaming-performance/

A report on LWN, a Linux kernel development site (sub required), details of a hardware bug in modern Intel CPUs that allows an attacker to access low-level kernel memory that is normally protected from higher level (programs and user) access. As reported on The Register, this bug could have big consequences, requiring OS kernel patches on Windows, Linux, and OS X. Those fixes could actually cause the affected CPUs to perform more slowly, but don't panic: your gaming PC is unlikely going to see a dramatic change as a result.

So initial reports is that most end users won't see any performance hits but instances are currently regulated to I/O intensive applications and virtual machines will see a hit.

 

[Jimmy Thick]

Just reading about this had made me keep my Intel systems off until there is a definite patch to fix this, of which I'm not sure thats 100% available yet. Early reports say this will not effect gaming pc's but any exploit that attacks cpu hardware is a concern for me, pc gaming is not cheap and the exploit could cause serious problems. Although Intel has said the exploit has not been used yet to their knowledge.

AMD cpu's though, as puffed about by their CEO no less, look uneffected. I'll keep using my Ryzen systems until this gets resolved.

 

[Jahona]

Just reading about this had made me keep my Intel systems off until there is a definite patch to fix this, of which I'm not sure thats 100% available yet. Early reports say this will not effect gaming pc's but any exploit that attacks cpu hardware is a concern for me, pc gaming is not cheap and the exploit could cause serious problems. Although Intel has said the exploit has not been used yet to their knowledge.

AMD cpu's though, as puffed about by their CEO no less, look uneffected. I'll keep using my Ryzen systems until this gets resolved.

The Meltdown design flaw should be patched as of this week. Apple silently patched it as part of an update to High Sierra last month. Linux patch was available at the beginning of this week, and Microsoft released their patch yesterday January 3rd.

The second design flaw found in all chips dating back to 1995, called Spectre will be harder to fix, although AMD has said again that their chips, while effected have a very small chance of this vulnerability to actually work.