Twice, Intel’s top executive, Navin Shenoy, had to come out and practice the promised transparency by addressing the reboots that an unknown number of users were suffering when applying the company’s patches against Meltdown and Specter. Although at first it was pointed out that they affected Broadwell and Haswell processors, the story was repeatedon Kaby Lake, Skylake, Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge chips, more modern generations.
This week, eleven days after the first release on reboots, Shenoy has written again in the press space of the Intel website to update the situation. According to the CEO of the company’s Data Center Group, the cause of this problem has already been identified on the Broadwell and Haswell platforms. But not all are good news.
“We recommend that you stop installing the current versions”
The spokesman of the manufacturer in this matter has explained -without going into explaining the causes- that have made “ample progress to develop a solution”. During the weekend, he indicated, he began distributing to his partners a first updated version of the solution for Meltdown and Specter intended for testing. When these are finished, he assures, “we will launch the final version”.
However, while these final patches arrive, Intel recommends that the installation of the current updates not be carried out , that their implementation in the systems be ignored as a preventive measure.
We recommend OEMs, cloud service providers, system manufacturers, software providers and end users to stop installing the current versions , as they can introduce a greater number of system restarts than expected and generate other behaviors unpredictable in the teams.
To see the full list of affected platforms and the recommended suggestions, Shenoy recommends visiting the Intel.com Security Center .
The executive continues his note asking his partners to focus on completing the tests to accelerate the launch of the solutions, reminding customers to maintain good security practices, trying to keep the systems updated, and finally asking for forgiveness at the end of their text.
I would like to apologize for any alterations that may have caused this change in the suggested guidelines. The security of our products is essential for Intel, for our customers, for our partners and for me personally. I assure you that we are constantly working to find a solution for these matters.
The CEO of Intel’s Data Center Group says he will continue to report on these problems as they get more information.