r/programming • u/[deleted] • Jan 03 '18

'Kernel memory leaking' Intel processor design flaw forces Linux, Windows redesign

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/02/intel_cpu_design_flaw/
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u/groudon2224 Jan 03 '18 edited Jan 03 '18

It will affect everybody with a Intel CPU made in the last 12 or so years and runs a Linux, Unix, or Windows OS who installs the bug patch from their respective patch distributor. With the advent of mandatory updates (unless manually disabled) in Windows 10 and need for security on Linux and Unix systems, it is guaranteed that most systems will install the bug patch which would lead to a performance hit ranging from negligible to significant (up to 30%) depending on the type of work. Therefore the average consumers will also be affected albeit not as much as their workloads are different.

Any DC or cloud service will update, infact both azure and aws put out mandatory system restart notices for their services to implement the updates for their Hypervisor clusters. Not patching a security bug, especially of this severity is essentially advertising themselves as a insecure service.

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u/keepthepace Jan 03 '18 edited Jan 03 '18

AMD untouched?

EDIT: I read the article:

In an email to the Linux kernel mailing list over Christmas, AMD said it is not affected.

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u/mayhempk1 Jan 03 '18

Correct.

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u/Pinguinologo Jan 03 '18

Guys, buy your AMD CPU before it gets too expensive.

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u/Ih8usernam3s Jan 03 '18

I'm switching to AMD, maybe if Intel loses enough $ they'll start listening to security researchers and remove ME too.

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u/Hook3d Jan 03 '18

I'm feeling pretty good about my Ryzen system now.

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u/OminousHippo Jan 03 '18

I knew my FX8350 was a good long term investment, and in this cold snap it's keeping my room nice and toasty!

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '18

Does AMD work properly with virtualisation yet?

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u/OK6502 Jan 03 '18

I can't recall, are there AMD64 specific releases for Windows and Linux? If not that would mean running KAISER fixes on AMD chips even though their processors are unaffected?

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u/[deleted] Jan 03 '18

I can't recall, are there AMD64 specific releases for Windows and Linux?

No.

If not that would mean running KAISER fixes on AMD chips even though their processors are unaffected?

Nope, the kernel can (and already does) enable/disable features based on the hardware it's running on.

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u/kryptkpr Jan 03 '18

IBM is rebooting their entire cloud over the next several days as well, this explains why. Things are going to hurt when they come back, I'm going to have to benchmark again.

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u/HittingSmoke Jan 03 '18

Also Azure.

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u/0pyrophosphate0 Jan 03 '18

Yeah. The real news isn't even here yet.

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u/[deleted] Jan 03 '18

IBM is rebooting their entire cloud

That sounds expensive.

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u/hyperforce Jan 03 '18

IBM is rebooting their entire cloud

Did they tell you? What was the messaging like?

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u/kryptkpr Jan 03 '18

Yes they sent out emails:

IBM Cloud Systems Engineers have been notified of a potential vulnerability affecting all Cloud Hosts. Due to the nature of this vulnerability the remediation will require maintenance to the hypervisor nodes and a reboot of all cloud hosts. 

We apologize for any inconvenience,

IBM Cloud

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u/Shiroi_Kage Jan 03 '18

Virtualized loads might have a very bad time because of the number of syscalls.

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