[SOLVED] AMD and Spectre... I am confused

Zyblin · 01-05-2018, 08:22 AM

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...te-4175621005/

The above link has a couple of articles I posted from Hacker News. In it it seems that it is saying that AMD is affected but only smart phones with AMD . It also says that AMD recommends for Linux users NOT to update to the latest patch. Yet in the same articles it seems to suggest that ALL systems are at risk from Spectre but Meltdown is Intel specific.

This is all still fairly new to me and most of us. Could anyone clarify this?

Timothy Miller · 01-05-2018, 08:46 AM

It is my understanding that:

Meltdown in Intel specific, and the patches for Meltdown will exclude AMD processors.

Spectre affects everyone, Intel, AMD, and even ARM.

Zyblin · 01-05-2018, 09:09 AM

Thanks. That is what I thought but it read differently to me after I looked at it again. What a mess all of this is.

Edit:

https://hosted.ap.org/demo/article/8...-security-flaw

Quote:

AMD said there is "near zero risk" to its own processors, either because its chips are designed differently, or security fixes for Microsoft Windows and other operating systems will take care of the problem. ARM Holdings said it's working with Intel, AMD and operating system vendors to address the problem. The ARM design is also used in Apple's mobile chips. Apple said late Thursday that all of its devices are affected, but it's already made fixes to help defend against Meltdown in laptops and phones and soon plans to release mitigations in the Safari browser to help defend against Spectre.