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PC Processors

steveis2
Adept II
‎07-12-2018 07:56 AM

X4 950 CPU and Spectre vulnerability

Hi, I have a Gigabyte A320M-HD2 motherboard and an AMD X4 950 CPU. I have updated to the most recent bios F23d. I was assured by Gigabyte that this would resolve Spectre vulnerability. However I find that I am still open to a spectre problem. After using GRC's inspectre program to check it tells me that the CPU does not have the microcode to protect against spectre.

My question is this. Has AMD actually sent the microcode for this X4 950 CPUr to motherboard manufacturers or not. Perhaps they have only fixed it for Ryzen CPUs. Any ideas would be welcome.

Regards Steve

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6 Replies
misterj
Big Boss
‎07-12-2018 09:56 AM

steveis2, this is mostly a user forum.  I do not work for AMD and cannot answer your question.  I think mainly you need to lean on Gigabyte.  They owe you an answer.  I also suggest you open an AMD Support ticket, here.  I am also curious why you are so concerned with Spectre.  Have you had a incident with it or know of a person who has?  We have been living with this for sometime now.  I am not aware of anyone being hurt by it.  Enjoy, John.

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steveis2
In response to misterj
Adept II
‎07-13-2018 08:28 AM

Hi, Thanks for your reply.

After panicking because the BIOS update didn't work as it should I can see that you are correct and I have been 'leaning' on Gigabyte. To be fair they are very quick to reply but so far there's no joy after a number of BIOS updates crashes and reinstalls etc etc. Still I live in hope as they assure me it should work.

Steve

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elstaci
In response to steveis2
MVP
‎07-13-2018 10:51 AM

I have a FX 8350 CPU with the latest ASUS Sabertooth 990FX BIOS (2016).

Ran the small GRC Inspectre program got similar results. My Windows supposed to have been patched for Meltdown and Spectre. There is no BIOS update from Asus for my motherboard.

So I don't know how accurate this program actually is. Here are screenshots from using the program plus the Powershell script provided by GRC to check the Program's Exit code:

EDIT: Just opened an Asus Technical Support ticket to see if there is going to be an update on my Sabertooth 990FX Gen 2.0 motherboard BIOS.

EDIT 2: Just got a response from Asus. No more BIOS update due to my motherboard being End Of Line (legacy).

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black_zion
MVP
‎07-13-2018 05:21 PM

There is something to note, and that's the fact that no Spectre class exploits have been demonstrated in the wild, application updates have drastically mitigated the risk that any Spectre class exploit will occur, and no security firm, including Google Project Zero, has demonstrated AMD chips are actually able to be exploited at all.

Although looking at this reddit thread, https://www.reddit.com/r/GAAB350/comments/8d6ii3/gigabyte_released_new_bios_f23d_anyone_tried_it/  , it does include the Spectre microcode and should display as protected with InSpectre, though again there's nothing to worry about even if you don't have it.

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steveis2
In response to black_zion
Adept II
‎07-19-2018 08:19 AM

Hi Thanks for your advice.

In the end Gigabyte sent me a BIOS file and it has successfully updated the system. I suppose I was worrying too much anyway, but with all the comments in the media I thought better safe than sorry.

Steve

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black_zion
In response to steveis2
MVP
‎07-19-2018 06:27 PM

Never trust the media, when was the last time you heard them report about a Flash, Java, Office, or Windows vulnerability?

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