The Verge reported yesterday that Intel is now claiming that it is currently developing and rolling out updates for Intel-based devices that will make those devices immune to the Meltdown and Spectre attacks that have cropped up in the first week of 2018.
We covered those bugs a bit just yesterday and how your Chromebook could be affected. After reading through countless articles on the subject in the past few days, the resounding consensus was that Meltdown could be effectively patched against while Spectre could be an ongoing issue for years as it might require a hardware and software solution.
According to an Intel spokesperson:
Intel has already issued updates for the majority of processor products introduced within the past five years. By the end of next week, Intel expects to have issued updates for more than 90 percent of processor products introduced within the past five years.
Again, this seems to fly in the face of what outlets like The New York Times reported just yesterday about Spectre being a long road to a full fix, requiring both hardware and software adjustments over time.
Now, I’m not saying Intel is falsifying anything, but it just feels a little too convenient that a fix has already arrived for what has been widely claimed as a massive hardware and software issue.
Intel isn’t coming down from the earlier expectations of processor slow down with these patches, but it is great news if the vast majority of Intel-powered computers are now fully immune to the exploits possible with both Meltdown and Spectre.
As the days continue moving forward in the shadow of this massive bug, my hope is that claims by Intel, Microsoft, Apple and Google are true and these patches and fixes being deployed will let us all move beyond these super bugs. I’m just not quite ready to take it all hook, line and sinker just yet.
More to come.
