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Intel Finally Releases Spectre Patches for Broadwell and Haswell Processors

Users are urged to update their PCs as soon as possible

Feb 28, 2018 13:50 GMT  ·  By
Intel patches Broadwell and Haswell chips against Spectre Variant 2
   Intel patches Broadwell and Haswell chips against Spectre Variant 2

Intel has finally released stable microcode updates for Broadwell and Haswell processor series to mitigate the second variant of the nasty Spectre security vulnerability unearthed last month.

The Meltdown and Spectre hardware bugs are the worst we've seen until now, and while most computer users are protected against the former, if they're using the latest operating system and software versions for their computers, the latter is a whole different story.

Discovered by security researcher Jann Horn, Spectre has two variants, CVE-2017-5715 and CVE-2017-5053, that we currently know about, and while the first one is easier to fix through software updates, the second one needs to be patched at hardware level only by the chip's manufacturer.

Intel has been working day and night since the discovery of these flaws and it's still releasing updated microcode firmware for various of its CPU series. Last week, the company released Spectre Variant 2 patches for Kaby Lake and Coffee Lake chips, and now the patches are available for Broadwell and Haswell processors.

Users need to install the latest microcode update for their chips

Intel has recently updated its microcode guidance PDF document to inform users that stable patches are now ready for Broadwell and Haswell chips to mitigate Spectre Variant 2. Hopefully, Intel tested the new microcode firmware very well so that there won't be any sudden reboots like it happened last month.

At the moment, the company managed to release Spectre mitigations for the Intel Core 6th, 7th, and 8th generation processors, as well as for the most recent Core X chips, and will continue to do so until all of their processor series are patched against these nasty security vulnerabilities.

Users are urged to install the latest microcode firmware update for their processors if a stable version is available from Intel's website or through the software repositories of their respective operating system. Intel recommends all users to keep their OS and installed applications up-to-date at all times.