Intel Messes Up Spectre Patch and Asks Not to Install it

Intel, the worst-hit party in the Meltdown/Spectre episode, is now asking its users to stop installing its original fix for the vulnerability. The users are being asked to wait for the final version of the Spectre patch to be released and install that instead.

The original patch had been known to cause reboot issues in machines, going all the way from the ageing Sandy Bridge to the newer Kaby Lake processors. Intel had, at the time, asked users to have faith in them and don’t skip on the updates.

Wall Street Journal Report

This was followed by a Wall Street Journal report where the company was alleged to have asked some of its larger, enterprise and cloud customers to wait out the buggy releases. Now, Intel is asking “OEMs, cloud service providers, system manufacturers, software vendors and end users” to stop deployment of current versions.

The bug that caused the issues for Haswell and Broadwell systems has now been isolated, according to Intel’s Navid Shenoy. He didn’t say whether any of the newer (or older) systems will be fixed alongside these platforms. The new update was rolled out for testing to industry partners over the weekend, with the final version set to be released in the near future.

“90% Fixed”

Intel had previously claimed to have fixed 90-percent of all recent PCs just days before this report and encouraged users to stay updated, which makes for an unclear message. The delay in updates is far from the only issue users face, however, with the performance hits set to arrive with these fixes.

For the worst case scenario (an older machine with Windows 7 or 8) users can expect a performance hit in double-digits, which may finally compel them to upgrade.



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