[5502] in bugtraq
Re: Intel Pentium Bug
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (George Imburgia)
Fri Nov 7 16:46:27 1997
Date: Fri, 7 Nov 1997 14:49:49 -0500
Reply-To: George Imburgia <gti@HOPI.DTCC.EDU>
From: George Imburgia <gti@HOPI.DTCC.EDU>
To: BUGTRAQ@NETSPACE.ORG
In-Reply-To: <19971107092926.19563@mbay.net>
On Fri, 7 Nov 1997, Stefan Hudson wrote:
> Oh dear. This is very not good. Without knowing machine level programing
> as well as I should, is it possible to create a patch for the, in the Linux
> kernel for example? Will there be a significant performance hit?
This isn't something you can fix at the OS level, it seems to be a
microcode bug.
Intel recently acknowledged that they enabled the ability to update
microcode on Pentium chips several years ago. That's right folks, they put
a backdoor in your hardware. The good news is, it could be used to fix
this bug, should Intel be so inclined.
> This code does NOT affect Cyrix 6x86 (166+ specifically, but probably all of
> them) processors. If you run a multiuser, untrusted system, I suggest
> reserving some at your local computer supplier... unless there is an easy
> fix for this, there is going to be a run on them.
>
> I don't know if AMD's Pentium-clone chips are vulnerable.
AMD's microcode is updateable too. No clue about cyrix.
______________________________________________________________________________
George Imburgia, Network Specialist Phone: (302)739-4068
Delaware Technical & Community College Fax: (302 739-3345
Office of the President e-mail: gti@hopi.dtcc.edu
