New intel-microcode security update is now available

Jun 20, 2019 16:51 GMT  ·  By

The Debian Project recently announced the general availability of a new security update for the intel-microcode firmware to patch the recently disclosed Intel MDS (Microarchitectural Data Sampling) vulnerabilities on more Intel CPUs.

Last month, on May 14th, Intel disclosed four new security vulnerabilities affecting many of its Intel microprocessor families. The tech giant was quick to release updated microcode firmware to mitigate these flaws, but not all the processor families were patched.

Therefore, the Debian Project has now released a new version of the intel-microcode firmware to mitigate the Intel MDS (Microarchitectural Data Sampling) hardware vulnerabilities, including (CVE-2018-12126 (MSBDS), CVE-2018-12127 (MLPDS), CVE-2018-12130 (MFBDS), and CVE-2019-11091 (MDSUM)) for Sandy Bridge Server and Core-X CPUs.

"This update provides additional support for some Sandybridge server and Core-X CPUs which were not covered in the original May microcode release," said Moritz Muehlenhoff in a mailing list announcement, where he provided a list of specific CPU models that are now supported by this intel-microcode update.

Users are urged to update their systems

If you're running the latest Debian GNU/Linux 9 "Stretch" operating system series, the Debian Project recommends that you update the intel-microcode firmware to version 3.20190618.1~deb9u1 as soon as possible and also install the most recent Linux kernel update, which was released last month, to fully mitigate these flaws.

To update your Debian GNU/Linux computers, all you have to do is open a terminal emulator or access the console and type the "sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get full-upgrade" command. Wait for all packages to be downloaded and then make sure you reboot your systems for the new kernel and intel-microcode versions to be correctly installed.