Intel adds new microcode to protect Westmere, Lynnfield, Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge processors from Specter and Meltdown

Microcode update for Intel Westmere, Lynnfield, Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge processors, protecting against Specter and Meltdown.

This year, above all, it is being known for the vulnerabilities that are being detected at the silicon level, which compromise the integrity of the data. Specter and Meltdown jumped on January 3 and since then, a host of variants and a host of other vulnerabilities have been discovered. Intel is the most affected and to protect users, update the microcode in the Westmere, Lynnfield, Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge processors.

Intel updates its microcode for several families of its processors.

The update offers an improvement over the fourth variant of Specter, which would be the most problematic, and also the 3A RSRR variant. Both Specter and Meltdown are two very important vulnerabilities, which are present at the silicon level, in all current processors, regardless of the company, but the one who is most affected, by the different variants, is Intel.

We must bear in mind that problems at the hardware level cannot be corrected, they can only be mitigated by software, making it more difficult to exploit these problems. These microcodes in the case of Intel, are implemented in the BIOS of the different motherboard manufacturers and are the only option to fix this problem a bit.

One of the biggest existing problems is that these corrections present a significant problem and it is that they require a long time to verify that they do not give problems. When they are validated, it is given to the different motherboard manufacturers and they have the task of implementing it on their motherboards through BIOS update. The problem is that hardware that has been on the market for a long time is often discontinued and not updated properly, leaving users unprotected.

Source: TPU