UPDATED 20:49 EDT / JANUARY 22 2018

INFRA

Intel asks users to hold off patching Meltdown and Spectre security bugs

Intel Corp. has told its hardware and software partners to stop distributing a security patch intended to fix the Meltdown and Spectre bugs that affect the majority of computers using its processor chips.

The chipmaker began rolling out the fix in December, even before news of the bugs was leaked. However, users have reported side effects from the patch, including a high number of system reboots.

Following an investigation, Intel said, it has discovered why this is happening in its newer Kaby Lake and Skylake chips, and is busily trying to “fix” the fix. So now, Intel is asking users to hold off from patching their hardware for the time being.

“Over the weekend, we began rolling out an early version of the updated solution to industry partners for testing, and we will make a final release available once that testing has been completed,” said Navin Shenoy, executive vice president and general manager of the Data Center Group at Intel.

As previously reported, the Spectre and Meltdown bugs were discovered last year and found to effect virtually all CPUs built over the past two decades. The problem has to do with how CPUs store data from multiple tasks running on a computer within its internal memory. The bug could potentially allow hackers to steal this data, though no attacks are known to have occurred so far.

Unfortunately, Intel hasn’t offered any more details for users running systems powered by chips older than its Kaby Lake and Skylake chips. It’s likely that the company is still trying to identify why its patch is causing problems for those older chips, though it hasn’t said anything officially. However, it was previously reported that the performance impact, a side effect of the patch, is more severe when it comes to older systems.

Intel hasn’t yet said when it hopes to deliver the updated patch for newer systems.

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