Hi Am 05.04.2018 um 16:19 schrieb Aham Brahmasmi: > Hello Misc, > > Will OpenBSD's patches for Spectre help mitigate the risk for the > processor families which are not receiving Intel's mitigation microcode > for Spectre/Spectre variant 2? Someone deeper into OpenBSD can give reliable information on this topic, I'll focus on the Notebook processors.
> Backdrop > Intel has issued a Microcode Revision Guidance on April 3, 2018 [1]. > As per this guidance, some processor families will not be receiving > the Spectre/Spectre variant 2 mitigation microcode updates from Intel. > The reasons for this kind act of benevolence are best known to Intel. > > The above is my understanding based on TheRegister's article[2]. As a > layman who understands little to nothing about Spectre or Meltdown, I > am wondering whether OpenBSD's mitigations would be sufficient. > > On a side note, older IBM-era ThinkPads seem to be left out by Intel. > ThinkPad Classic is/was for volks with lot of money. Lenovo wants to be > Apple. I do not have words to express myself. The last Thinkpads bearing an IBM logo were the T61's (Core 2) and a quick search indicates already T60's (Core) had been built under Lenovo and not anymore IBM, yet keeping the IBM logo in it for some extra time. Also the all T400 series (Core 2 as well) which didn't bear any IBM branding won't be receiving updated microcode and thus Lenovo is very unlikely to release BIOS updates. It's not a move against IBM-branded old Thinkpad models. The same applies for any other vendor unless Intel reconsiders their decision. For systems like the T410 (Core i gen 1, Arrandale) who haven't received any BIOS updates yet but Intel lists as CPus who should get updated microcode, on OpenBSD we can then load updated microcode once it is available. Thus we are not depdendent on system and board manufacturers to provide updated BIOS version. A lot of machines still plenty powerful enough for casual use will be left out by Intel in terms of microcode fixes. I'm actually interested on how OpenBSD developers plan and eventually decide on a generic implementation, independent of microcode updates like Linux did with retpoline. Anyway, thank you to those OpenBSD developers who have invested many hours and sleepless nights in order to implement mitigations for Spectre and Meltdown on OpenBSD no with extra time before the embargo was lifted. -- Mathieu
