Yesterday report about an exploit affecting Intel/AMD processors started appearing in Tech media and Microsoft has promptly stepped up to address it. Microsoft in an advisory has provided more information about this exploit and claims that it affects ARM processors and other operating systems Android and iOS too.
Microsoft is aware of a new publicly disclosed class of vulnerabilities referred to as “speculative execution side-channel attacks” that affect many modern processors and operating systems including Intel, AMD, and ARM. Note: this issue will affect other systems such as Android, Chrome, iOS, MacOS, so we advise customers to seek out guidance from those vendors.
Microsoft has released several updates to help mitigate these vulnerabilities. We have also taken action to secure our cloud services. See below for more details.
Microsoft has not received any information to indicate that these vulnerabilities have been used to attack customers at this time. Microsoft continues working closely with industry partners including chip makers, hardware OEMs and app vendors to protect customers. To get all available protections, hardware/firmware and software updates are required. This includes microcode from device OEMs and in some cases updates to AV software as well.
Microsoft has released emergency updates to fix Intel/AMD exploit fix for the supported Windows 10 Version 1709, Version 1703 and Version 1607. It has also released updates for Windows 7, 8.1, Windows 10 Version 1511, Version 1507 and all other Windows versions supported or unsupported.
You can go to this page and scroll down to see the update listed for your Windows version. You can either update via “Windows Update” automatically or download the standalone update file by following the link provided for your Windows version on the page.
