Big news this week with respect to those Meltdown and Spectre CPU issues that were revealed just after the new year. Security professionals are backtracking on their advice to install any released patches immediately. Instead, the patches are buggy themselves and the revised advice is to cease installing the patches until you can confirm that they are working for your products. However, that’s not all the news involving these flaws.
Microsoft (MS) released security patches this week to address the operating system part of these vulnerabilities and many third party antivirus products are not compatible with them. So, if those vendors don’t take action according to MS instructions, these will not work, and future patches won’t work on those computers either.
The deal with MS means that the third party vendors must make a registry entry in their code for the patches to function correctly. Some of them have agreed to do it; others have not. Therefore, it’s up to the end users to determine if the product they use meets the MS instructions. If not, consider a different anti-virus product. An alternative to that is to shut off the third party product and use Microsoft’s built in anti-virus features. If you are using expired trial versions or end-of-life products for your anti-virus, consider getting a fully functioning and supported one or ensure the built-in solution is enabled in Windows.
Microsoft is resuming distribution of its fix for AMD, but there are still issues with it and older machines. Intel has asked those with Honeywell or Broadwell processors not to install their patch. However, there are even more exceptions. Make sure that you check with your product manufacturers directly to find out if you should apply their patches before doing so. If they give the thumbs up, do it right away. As the issues with Meltdown and Spectre linger, researchers are getting closer to determining how to exploit these. If they can figure out a way, so can the bad actors and you can bet they are busy doing just that.
As for determining if your anti-virus solution is on the fully compatible list, don’t assume that if you have one of the big ones that it’s included. Not all of the well-known and reputable ones are. Do some research to find out about yours.
And there’s even more. Phony patches for these vulnerabilities are being seen. For now, these are being seen in Europe as reported by Germany’s Federal Office for Security and IT (BSIP). This is that country’s equivalent to the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The fake ones are found when links redirect to the malicious patches. These links are seen in spam phishing email messages. Remember never to click on links or attachments that arrive unexpectedly or that you aren’t completely confident in. Make sure to get your patches directly from your product developers and manufactures only. Neither NIST nor BSI will send them out. When you see the notification that an update is ready, take a close look to make sure it’s really the one you want to apply. If in doubt, contact the developer to make sure.
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