Is Ubuntu Linux protected against the Meltdown and Spectre security flaws?

[Robert Heller]

At Fri, 2 Mar 2018 01:54:50 +0800 "Ubuntu user technical support,  not for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> wrote:

> 
> On 19/02/2018, Colin Watson <cjwatson at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> > On Mon, Feb 19, 2018 at 08:11:05PM +0800, Turritopsis Dohrnii Teo En Ming
> > wrote:
> >> What are the patches that I can download and install to be protected
> >> against the Meltdown and Spectre security vulnerabilities?
> >
> > https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SecurityTeam/KnowledgeBase/SpectreAndMeltdown
> > has details on this.
> >
> > --
> > Colin Watson                                       [cjwatson at ubuntu.com]
> >
> > --
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> >
> 
> >From the wording on that web page, relating to the updates released on
> 21 February, is it correct that the problem of the three (S1, S2 and
> Meltdown) problems are now fixed, and that the threat is now overcome?
> 
> I had the impression that one or more of the three problems required
> new CPU hardware microcode, to fix the problem, and that, apart from
> keeping the operating system updated, as security updates became
> available, we need to wait for a new generation of CPU's - at least
> six months in the future, to get the three problems fixed beyond
> mitigations (as partial fixes) as they become available.
> 
> Could this understanding be comfirmed or refuted?

Part of the boot up sequence is to download microcode to the processors, if 
needed.  It is also possible to update the BIOS/EFI code to do that also, in 
which case Linux's start up skips the microcode download (or else it is 
redundent).  If the updates included new microcode, then yes your systems are 
protected.  You do need to reboot for the new microcode to be downloaded.

> 
> Thank you in anticipation.
> 
> 

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