14 DAY TRIAL // Intel rolled out its own security updates to address Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities disclosed earlier this year, but it turns out that just like it happened with Windows and Ubuntu patches, they’re causing unexpected reboots on a number of PCs.
Intel has just confirmed that it’s indeed aware of the reports and is currently investigating, though the company doesn’t have a workaround for impacted systems just yet.
The executive vice president and general manager of Intel's Data Center Group, Navin Shenoy, explained that Broadwell and Haswell processors are affected by the bug, though no specifics were provided, other than impacted systems are pushed into an infinite reboot loop.
“We have received reports from a few customers of higher system reboots after applying firmware updates. Specifically, these systems are running Intel Broadwell and Haswell CPUs for both client and data center. We are working quickly with these customers to understand, diagnose and address this reboot issue,” he said.
No workaround just yet
While no workaround was offered to deal with the bug, the Intel official said new firmware versions could be released in the coming weeks depending on the conclusion of the company’s investigation.
“If this requires a revised firmware update from Intel, we will distribute that update through the normal channels. We are also working directly with data center customers to directly discuss the issue,” he said.
So what should customers do now given that some of the updates could lead to boot failures on their computers? Intel says that patching is still recommended, despite the risk of breaking down the system.
“End-users should continue to apply updates recommended by their system and operating system providers,” Navin explained.
For what it’s worth, similar problems were also experienced by Windows and Ubuntu users, though in the case of the first only systems running on AMD chips were impacted. Ubuntu has already addressed the problems with new kernel updates.