Re: Intel microcode fixes [OFF-TOPIC]

H. Peter Anvin (hpa@transmeta.com)
20 Nov 1998 19:35:39 GMT

Followup to: <Pine.LNX.4.05.9811192328200.6229-100000@tahallah.demon.co.uk>
By author: Alex Buell <alex.buell@tahallah.demon.co.uk>
In newsgroup: linux.dev.kernel
>
> > EGADS! Is there NO security on the processor microcode? Could this be
> > exploited to do evil narsty things?
>
> Yeah. #1 Exploit: Resurrect the F00F bug. #2 Exploit: Infamous Pentium
> floating point bug. The list is endless.
>

Actually, it is *believed* that the microcode upload contains some
kind of security checking, in that it will reject code that isn't
properly "blessed." If that is so is hard to say for certain.

-hpa

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