Allen
Hotshot
Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 8,854
Ohio USA
Official Responses from Google and CPU Manufacturers to potential hacking issue -- the fix for which is said to cause CPU slowdown:
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Google
These vulnerabilities affect many CPUs, including those from AMD, ARM, and Intel, as well as the devices and operating systems running them..
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AMD
Variant / AMD Response Matrix
Google Project Zero (GPZ)
Research Title Details
Variant One: Bounds Check Bypass - Resolved by software / OS updates to be made available by system vendors and manufacturers. Negligible performance impact expected.
Variant Two: Branch Target Injection - Differences in AMD architecture mean there is a near zero risk of exploitation of this variant. Vulnerability to Variant 2 has not been demonstrated on AMD processors to date.
Variant Three: Rogue Data Cache Load - Zero AMD vulnerability due to AMD architecture differences.
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ARM
Our Cortex-M processors, which are pervasive in low-power, connected IoT devices, are not impacted.
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Intel
Recent reports that these exploits are caused by a “bug” or a “flaw” and are unique to Intel products are incorrect. Based on the analysis to date, many types of computing devices — with many different vendors’ processors and operating systems — are susceptible to these exploits.
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Microsoft
We are in the process of deploying mitigations to cloud services and have also released security updates to protect Windows customers ,,
So far, the official statements indicate this is mostly an Intel issue. The fix will slow down some applications. I wonder if the "fix" will also slow down AMD and ARM.
We'll see next week - if the W10 fix becomes available and sites test different CPUs for impact. Single player, offline gaming and other single user, offline tasks may be little affected (but, that's speculation).
