Meltdown / Spectre

Software PureOS
1

I see a patch here: https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/12/4/709

Due to the severity of the exploit, will this patch be rolled into PureOS asap?

Also, please keep your browsers updated people, Firefox 57.0.4 has a temp fix: https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2018/01/03/mitigations-landing-new-class-timing-attack/

2

https://puri.sm/posts/meltdown-spectre-and-the-future-of-secure-hardware/

1 Like
3

Thanks, I should have checked the blog!

4

To anyone with an existing installation - running:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

and

sudo apt-get full-upgrade

will only update the OS to protect against Meltdown. For Spectre (specifically variant 2), you also need to install microcodes, which involves adding a non-free Intel repo and running update commands. Instructions here:

https://puri.sm/posts/purism-patches-meltdown-and-spectre-variant-2-both-included-in-all-new-librem-laptops/

5

I’ve done this step to protect against variant 2, but now when I boot my machine, my hard drive buzzes, and sometimes shuts down the laptop. Anyone else having this issue?

6

What is the expected microcode version?

After applying the update as described is this post

https://puri.sm/posts/purism-patches-meltdown-and-spectre-variant-2-both-included-in-all-new-librem-laptops/

I get

cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep microcode
microcode      : 0xc2
microcode      : 0xc2
microcode      : 0xc2
microcode      : 0xc2

and

uname -a
Linux <computer_name> 4.14.0-3-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.14.13-1 (2018-01-14) x86_64 GNU/Linux

But a Spectre & Meltdown checker script tells me that I might still be vulnerable:

So how can I ensure that the microcode update is correct?