Re: Intel microcode fixes [OFF-TOPIC]

Pat St. Jean (psj@cgmlarson.com)
Fri, 20 Nov 1998 11:30:27 -0600 (CST)

On Thu, 19 Nov 1998, Alex Buell wrote:
>On Thu, 19 Nov 1998, John Fulmer wrote:
>> Does Linux protect the cpu at all in this instance?
>
>Don't think so.

How could it? IIRC, the "new" microcode is stored in the flash rom with
the BIOS. One of the first things the machine does on startup is update
the microcode. Linux isn't even in existance at that time.

You can't have the kernel reset the processor, because I'll just rewrite
the reset commands in the malicious microcode to noop.

Can of worms indeed. Anyone know if the mainframers thought of this?

Pat

-- 
Patrick St. Jean              '97 XLH 883                psj@cgmlarson.com
Programmer & Systems Administrator                    +1 713-977-4177 x115
Larson Software Technology                        http://www.cgmlarson.com




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