To avoid ZombieLoad processors vulnerabilities, Google has disabled HyperThreading by default in Chrome OS.
This week we have found the serious vulnerability of the new Intel processors. The researchers who discovered ZombieLoad, the vulnerability called MSD have warned of the risks of it. They have highlighted that, until now, vulnerabilities were investigated at the non-microarchitecture level, which is why so many vulnerabilities are jumping. Google Chrome OS has been updated for this vulnerability. This security update will keep us safe, but at the cost of disabling the HyperThreading feature.
Google updates Chrome OS against new Intel vulnerabilities
A security update states that from Google they ensure that it will not affect the performance of Chrome OS in the least. The processing threads or HyperThreading improve the processing speed by 30%, allowing to improve the performance. Of course, disabling them ends up affecting performance, no matter how hard you try to optimize threads.
If we need that extra power they can be activated again. The first thing we have to do is start the explorer and write 'chroeme: // flags # scheduler-configuration' inside the search bar and logically hit the enter. This route will take us to a section of 'hidden' configurations that are separated from the rest because the average user does not need or use.
Here we must select the 'Performance' option highlighted in yellow within Chrome OS. This option performs an activation of HyperThreading, after restarting after checking this option. If we want to deactivate it after a job, we can choose the 'default' or 'conservative' options so that it is deactivated again.
We know Intel is working around the clock to develop security patches for these ZombieLoad vulnerabilities. Some vulnerabilities, on the other hand, known to Intel, which has collaborated in their discovery. Note that the Whiskey Lake, Coffee Lake Refresh and Cascade Lake-SP architecture processors are immune because they are immune to Meltdown.
Source: AC
