On 21/01/2018 09:58, Yousuf Khan wrote:
On 1/21/2018 1:57 AM, Paul wrote:
Yousuf Khan wrote:
Seems to be much easier than trying to install and run PowerShell
scripts, and much more reliable too:

https://www.grc.com/inspectre.htm

Have you decided what's it doing ?

What is it actually reading out ?

Â*Â*Â* Paul

The FAQ on that page mentions that since Meltdown doesn't affect AMD
systems, there is no patch needed to fix it on those systems. So you
can't enable or disable the fixes to test it, since the problem simply
doesn't exist on AMD. On Intel, if you don't have the latest patches to
fix Meltdown, then you also can't enable or disable the fix, since the
fix hasn't been applied.

For Spectre, it says that that requires a firmware upgrade. My processor
(AMD) shows that it's invulnerable to Meltdown, but susceptible to
Spectre. The way to fix Spectre requires a BIOS upgrade. I have a
feeling that I will never see another BIOS upgrade for my system, as the
last BIOS update for my board was 2013! The board makers may update
boards that are a year or two old, but not this one.

Â*Â*Â*Â*Yousuf Khan

It seems to be possible to update the microcode from the OS and
Microsoft could do that if they wanted. Linux can do it.

I'm currently trying to investigate whether a Windows driver can update
it satisfactorily after discovering:

https://labs.vmware.com/flings/vmware-cpu-microcode-update-driver

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/how-to-update-microcode-from-windows.787152/

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/ucode-fix-for-spectre-ht-bug-fix-and-meltdown.806451/


I tried it by
1) extracting the contents of
CPU-microcode_06A14BA0506D12B69ED78E226F22CE0F9EEA6E1A .zip to a directory.
2) running install.bat using "Run as Administrator".
3) Changing the registry with:

=============FIX1.REG STARTS===============
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\servic es\cpumcupdate]
"Start"=dword:00000001

=============FIX1.REG ENDS================


Something definitely happens because, after rebooting, InSpectre
(Release 5) says "Vulnerable to Spect NO".

However something odd is going on and I'm not sure if it's because
Windows is patching the Microcode after it's decided what the microcode
patch level is, or maybe InSpectre (Release 5) has a bug.

The oddness is that Inspectre always starts with a button showing
"Enable Spectre Protection". This implies to me that this protection is
disabled. However pressing the button once leaves it as "Enable Spectre
Protection" but subsequent presses to toggle between "Disable Spectre
Protection" and "Enable Spectre Protection".

So maybe Inspectre (Release 5) just always starts showing "Enable
Spectre Protection" even if it is already correctly enabled.

--

Brian Gregory (in England).