Red Hat responds to the Intel processor flaw

How are the Linux vendors addressing the recently-exposed Intel processor flaw? I asked Red Hat and got some solid answers.What is the nature of the problem? Discovered some time ago, but only just yesterday brought into public view, the CPU flaw allows an attacker to bypass restrictions to gain access to privileged memory (which should be inaccessible) -- possibly stealing sensitive information from computer systems, mobile devices, and cloud deployments. There are actually two problems and they've been dubbed "Meltdown" and "Spectre". They potentially affect 90% of computer servers and virtually every Intel microprocessor.The Meltdown flaw is specific to Intel while Spectre is a design flaw that has been used by many processor manufacturers for decades.To read this article in full, please click here

Flowspec and RFC1998?

In a recent comment, Dave Raney asked:

Russ, I read your latest blog post on BGP. I have been curious about another development. Specifically is there still any work related to using BGP Flowspec in a similar fashion to RFC1998. In which a customer of a provider will be able to ask a provider to discard traffic using a flowspec rule at the provider edge. I saw that these were in development and are similar but both appear defunct. BGP Flowspec-ORF https://www.ietf.org/proceedings/93/slides/slides-93-idr-19.pdf BGP Flowspec Redirect https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-idr-flowspec-redirect-ip-02.

This is a good question—to which there are two answers. The first is this service does exist. While its not widely publicized, a number of transit providers do, in fact, offer the ability to send them a flowspec community which will cause them to set a filter on their end of the link. This kind of service is immensely useful for countering Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, of course. The problem is such services are expensive. The one provider I have personal experience with charges per prefix, and the cost is high enough to make it much less attractive.

Why would the cost be so high? The same Continue reading

Worth Reading: Changing Slack to break down silos

Collaboration and information silos are a reality in most organizations today. People tend to regard them as huge barriers to innovation and organizational efficiency. They’re also a favorite target for solutions from software tool vendors of all types. Tools by themselves, however, are seldom (if ever), the answer to a problem like organizational silos. The reason for this is simple: Silos are made of people, and human dynamics are key drivers for the existence of silos in the first place. —Guy Martin @ opensource.com

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Intel’s processor flaw is a virtualization nightmare

2018 is off to a very bad start for Intel after the disclosure of a flaw deep in the design of its processors, dubbed Meltdown. And while the company has publicly said the issue won’t affect consumers, they aren’t the ones who need to be worried.The issue is found in how Intel processors work with page tables for handling virtual memory. It is believed that an exploit would be able to observe the content of privileged memory by exploiting a technique called speculative execution.Speculative execution exploit Speculative execution is a part of a methodology called out-of-order execution (OOE), where basically the CPU makes an educated guess on what will happen next based on the data it has. It’s designed to speed up the CPU rather than burn up CPU cycles working its way through a process. It’s all meant to make the CPU as efficient as possible.To read this article in full, please click here

Intel’s processor flaw is a virtualization nightmare

2018 is off to a very bad start for Intel after the disclosure of a flaw deep in the design of its processors. And while the company has publicly said the issue won’t affect consumers, they aren’t the ones who need to be worried.The issue is found in how Intel processors work with page tables for handling virtual memory. It is believed that an exploit would be able to observe the content of privileged memory by exploiting a technique called speculative execution.Speculative execution exploit Speculative execution is a part of a methodology called out-of-order execution (OOE), where basically the CPU makes an educated guess on what will happen next based on the data it has. It’s designed to speed up the CPU rather than burn up CPU cycles working its way through a process. It’s all meant to make the CPU as efficient as possible.To read this article in full, please click here

Meltdown and Spectre

While many have already seen something on these two, this is the best set of articles I’ve found on these vulnerabilities and the ramifications.

Meltdown and Spectre exploit critical vulnerabilities in modern processors. These hardware bugs allow programs to steal data which is currently processed on the computer. While programs are typically not permitted to read data from other programs, a malicious program can exploit Meltdown and Spectre to get hold of secrets stored in the memory of other running programs. This might include your passwords stored in a password manager or browser, your personal photos, emails, instant messages and even business-critical documents. —meltdownattack.com

Windows, Linux, and macOS have all received security patches that significantly alter how the operating systems handle virtual memory in order to protect against a hitherto undisclosed flaw. This is more than a little notable; it’s been clear that Microsoft and the Linux kernel developers have been informed of some non-public security issue and have been rushing to fix it. But nobody knew quite what the problem was, leading to lots of speculation and experimentation based on pre-releases of the patches. —ARS Technica

You don’t have to worry if you patch. If you download the Continue reading

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IoT: A vulnerable asset but also a recovery tool in disasters

If you think the proliferation of mobile devices changed the concept of the network edge, get ready for the emerging Internet of Things (IoT), where a network-connected sensor could be located on top of a mountain, in a corn field or even in the ocean.So, how does an enterprise incorporate IoT into its disaster recovery plan? In one sense, IoT creates a unique challenge because it is far-flung and vulnerable. But it can also become part of a DR solution, helping to protect the business in the event of a disaster, according to experts.+Also on Network World: REVIEW: 4 top disaster-recovery platforms compared; Review: Microsoft Azure IoT Suite+To read this article in full, please click here

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32% off Kidde Carbon Monoxide Alarm with Display and 10 Year Battery – Deal Alert

Carbon Monoxide is odorless, tasteless and invisible, and it accounts for over 72,000 cases of poisoning each year. Kidde calls their C3010D model "worry free" because its sensor and sealed battery provide 10 years of uninterrupted CO detection, and a digital display that updates every 15 seconds. The unit will chirp when its reaching the ends of its life, so you don't have to wonder. The Kidde C3010D alarm is currently discounted 32% to $34.91. See this deal now on Amazon.To read this article in full, please click here

Some notes on Meltdown/Spectre

I thought I'd write up some notes.

You don't have to worry if you patch. If you download the latest update from Microsoft, Apple, or Linux, then the problem is fixed for you and you don't have to worry. If you aren't up to date, then there's a lot of other nasties out there you should probably also be worrying about. I mention this because while this bug is big in the news, it's probably not news the average consumer needs to concern themselves with.

This will force a redesign of CPUs and operating systems. While not a big news item for consumers, it's huge in the geek world. We'll need to redesign operating systems and how CPUs are made.

Don't worry about the performance hit. Some, especially avid gamers, are concerned about the claims of "30%" performance reduction when applying the patch. That's only in some rare cases, so you shouldn't worry too much about it. As far as I can tell, 3D games aren't likely to see less than 1% performance degradation. If you imagine your game is suddenly slower after the patch, then something else broke it.

This wasn't foreseeable. A common cliche is that such bugs Continue reading
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