A report from PCWorld states that Intel has finished with its microcode updates for the Spectre vulnerability found in its processors, however unfortunately, Intel has not provided updates for all of them. According to the Intel Microcode Revision Guidance paper, last updated April 2nd, Penryn (2007), Yorkfield (2007), Wolfdale (2007), Bloomfield (2008), Clarksfield (2009), Jasper Forest (2010), and Atom “SoFIA” (2015) will not be receiving microcode updates to patch the vulnerability. Intel's explanation?
After a comprehensive investigation of the microarchitectures and microcode capabilities for these products, Intel has determined to not release microcode updates for these products for one or more reasons including, but not limited to the following:
• Micro-architectural characteristics that preclude a practical implementation of features mitigating Variant 2 (CVE-2017-5715)
• Limited Commercially Available System Software support
• Based on customer inputs, most of these products are implemented as “closed systems” and therefore are expected to have a lower likelihood of exposure to these vulnerabilities
So there you have it. RIP Core 2, and 1st gen Core i processors. It's also worth noting that I still have to receive a BIOS update for my personal X99 machine. Our page is still up with a list of manufacturer pages for the BIOS updates, but most of them have been slow to update, if at all.
After a comprehensive investigation of the microarchitectures and microcode capabilities for these products, Intel has determined to not release microcode updates for these products for one or more reasons including, but not limited to the following:
• Micro-architectural characteristics that preclude a practical implementation of features mitigating Variant 2 (CVE-2017-5715)
• Limited Commercially Available System Software support
• Based on customer inputs, most of these products are implemented as “closed systems” and therefore are expected to have a lower likelihood of exposure to these vulnerabilities
So there you have it. RIP Core 2, and 1st gen Core i processors. It's also worth noting that I still have to receive a BIOS update for my personal X99 machine. Our page is still up with a list of manufacturer pages for the BIOS updates, but most of them have been slow to update, if at all.