The company says it's currently working on a fix

Jan 22, 2018 18:27 GMT  ·  By

Intel announced today that it managed to identify the root cause of the reboot issues users experienced after updating to the latest microcode firmware version that mitigates the Spectre security flaw.

Two weeks ago, Intel admitted its latest microcode firmware update caused reboot issues for Broadwell and Haswell hardware, and immediately recommended OEMs and OS vendors to pull the new version and replace it with the older one from last year. Intel's 20180108 microcode update was supposed to fix the Spectre security vulnerability, but it caused more harm than good.

Intel now says it's currently working on a fix that will be released with a new microcode firmware update in the coming weeks, but not until they thoroughly test it with a wide range of its processors to ensure no other technical issues occur in the future, as well as to avoid customers having to update and remove microcode firmware versions all day long.

"We have now identified the root cause for Broadwell and Haswell platforms, and made good progress in developing a solution to address it," says Navin Shenoy in the press release. "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."

Intel recommends the industry to stop deploying Spectre patch

Intel also asks the industry to stop deploying its latest microcode firmware update that addresses the Spectre security vulnerability and revert to the previous version from last year, which leaves users' computers vulnerable to Spectre attacks. Intel said the number of reboots could grow if OEMs, system manufacturers, OS and software vendors, and cloud service providers don't revert to older microcode.

The company invited industry partners to focus their efforts on test driving pre-release microcode update that presumably addresses the reboot issues to accelerate its release for the entire world. Intel apologized for any disruption caused by its latest microcode update and urged users to keep their systems up-to-date at all times. More details on the new microcode update are expected later this week.