Intel's Microcode Update for Spectre Exploit Is Now Available in Ubuntu's Repos

Canonical announced a few moments ago that Intel's latest microcode update for the Spectre security vulnerability is now available from the software repositories of all supported Ubuntu Linux releases.
After releasing earlier this week new kernel updates to mitigate the Meltdown and Spectre security exploits that put billions of devices at risk of attacks by allowing a local, unprivileged attacker to obtain sensitive information from kernel memory, Canonical now released the updated microcode from Intel for supported Intel CPUs.
Canonical says that the update provides microcode patches that are required by the corresponding Linux kernel versions used in Ubuntu 17.10 (Artful Aardvark), Ubuntu 17.04 (Zesty Zapus), Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus), and Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) operating system series to mitigate the Spectre vulnerability.
"It was discovered that microprocessors utilizing speculative execution and branch prediction may allow unauthorized memory reads via sidechannel attacks. This flaw is known as Spectre. A local attacker could use this to expose sensitive information, including kernel memory (CVE-2017-5715)," reads today's advisory.
Here's how to update the microcode for Intel CPUs

Users are urged to update their system accordingly to the new microcode patch for Intel CPUs. The new versions are intel-microcode 3.20180108.0~ubuntu17.10.1 for Ubuntu 17.10, intel-microcode 3.20180108.0~ubuntu17.04.1 for Ubuntu 17.10, intel-microcode 3.20180108.0~ubuntu16.04.2 for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, and intel-microcode 3.20180108.0~ubuntu14.04.2 for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.
To install the microcode firmware, open the Software & Updates program and go to the Additional Drivers tab. There, look for the processor microcode firmware for Intel CPUs form intel-microcode and mark it for installation if it's not used. Otherwise, simply update your Ubuntu computer by running the "sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get full-upgrade" command in the Terminal app, and reboot.
Updating Intel microcode firmware

 Updating Intel microcode firmware
Intel's Microcode Update for Spectre Exploit Is Now Available in Ubuntu's Repos

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Daily Ubuntu - GnuCash - Keep Your Cash (or lack thereof) in Order

GnuCash - Keep Your Cash (or lack thereof) in Order Thank you to John J. for suggesting this application. Be sure to subscribe to the site feed to keep up with the bombast of new applications. GnuCash is a personal finance and accounting application created to keep you crazy organized. It can do simple things like recording expenses and take care of register transactions, but it can also handle tracking bank accounts, income, and a slew of financial instruments and derivatives. John J. summed it up quite well in his suggestion e-mail: ...GnuCash is a great piece of financial software. I just use it to keep my home financials in order, but it has so many other functions that I would never even need to use. It uses professional standards like double-entry accounting, which my professors babble on and on about being important. They generally mention words like 'Enron' and 'lawsuit' in context. The register has an easy interface that can handle checking and credit tr...
Read more

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS: the cloud platform of choice, due on 17th April 2014

Image
Canonical today announces Ubuntu 14.04 LTS will be released on 17th April 2014, bringing a new level of reliability, performance and interoperability to cloud and scale out environments with support and maintenance for five years. “Ubuntu is the primary platform for cloud – public, private or hybrid. In this release, our third LTS with deep roots in cloud, we raise the bar for efficiency and orchestration at scale. That’s why businesses are adopting Ubuntu as they move to the cloud computing era,” says Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu and Canonical. Global enterprises including AT&T, Bharti, Bouygues Telecom, British Telecom, China Telecom, China Unicom, Cogent Communications, Comcast, Deutsche Telekom, Korea Telecom, NEC, NTT, Numergy, Orange France, Time Warner Cable, Turk Telecom, Verizon and Yandex, as well as leading web scale services such as Netflix, Instagram, Hipchat and Quora are all building next generation services on Ubuntu. “Time Warner Cable (TWC) is running Ubun...
Read more

Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail Final Version Released

Image
Ubuntu 13.04  with codename “ Raring Ringtail ” has been released and announced by  Ubuntu  Team. It comes with a number of improvements in performance and speed, and aesthetic touches that promise “more polished visual experience of Ubuntu  to date”. Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail Final Version Released and Available for Download
Read more