Gibson Research has released a new tool called InSpectre to detect if your PC is vulnerable to Meltdown and Spectre. The tiny 122 KB program runs in place and checks identifiers as well as Microsoft updates to be sure you are protected from these flaws.
Very cool little piece of software. Running it on my machine told me that Windows was updated to protect against Meltdown, but I was still vulnerable to Spectre. Hopefully MSI comes out with a BIOS update for me shortly. Gibson Research also notes DO NOT download the tool from any 3rd party websites, as it could be malicious.
Protection from these two significant vulnerabilities requires updates to every system's hardware–its BIOS which reloads updated processor firmware–and its operating system–to use the new processor features. To further complicate matters, newer processors contain features to minimize the performance impact of these important security improvements. But older processors, lacking these newer features, will be significantly burdened and system performance will suffer under some workloads. This InSpectre utility was designed to clarify every system's current situation so that appropriate measures can be taken to update the system's hardware and software for maximum security and performance.
Very cool little piece of software. Running it on my machine told me that Windows was updated to protect against Meltdown, but I was still vulnerable to Spectre. Hopefully MSI comes out with a BIOS update for me shortly. Gibson Research also notes DO NOT download the tool from any 3rd party websites, as it could be malicious.
Protection from these two significant vulnerabilities requires updates to every system's hardware–its BIOS which reloads updated processor firmware–and its operating system–to use the new processor features. To further complicate matters, newer processors contain features to minimize the performance impact of these important security improvements. But older processors, lacking these newer features, will be significantly burdened and system performance will suffer under some workloads. This InSpectre utility was designed to clarify every system's current situation so that appropriate measures can be taken to update the system's hardware and software for maximum security and performance.