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THE SKY IS FALLING: All our CPUs are vulnerable

Source 1: posted by DoctorWho1975 https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/880782-more-intel-leaks-this-one-is-not-good-though/

Source 2: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/02/intel_cpu_design_flaw/

Source 3: https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/analysis/3023798/intel-arm-and-amd-all-affected-by-meltdown-and-spectre-security-bypassing-cpu-design-flaw

LIST OF AFFECTED INTEL CPUs: https://security-center.intel.com/advisory.aspx?intelid=INTEL-SA-00088&languageid=en-fr

 

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/01/meltdown-and-spectre-heres-what-intel-apple-microsoft-others-are-doing-about-it/

• Research teams at Google’s Project Zero and universities in the United States, Austria and Australia have released a detailed study on three possible cyber attacks made possible because of a fatal security glitch in many modern Intel chips.

• Meltdown, applicable to virtually every Intel chip made for many years, along with certain high-performance ARM designs

• The flaw depends on the way that operating systems share memory between user programs and the kernel, and the solution—albeit a solution that carries some performance penalty—is to put an end to that sharing.

• Spectre, applicable to chips from Intel, AMD, and ARM, and probably every other processor on the market that offers speculative execution, too, is more subtle. It encompasses a trick testing array bounds to read memory within a single process, which can be used to attack the integrity of virtual machines and sandboxes, and cross-process attacks using the processor's branch predictors

• fixes for some aspects of Spectre appear to have been developed, but protecting against the whole range of fixes will require modification (or at least recompilation) of at-risk programs.

• Dubbed Meltdown, the flaw has an operating system level fix that separates the kernel from a program or process' virtual memory, which has the effect of slowing down machines.

  • 5 to 30% slow down, depending on the task and the processor model.

  • More recent Intel chips have features – such as PCID – to reduce the performance hit.

• The flaw is in the Intel x86-64 hardware, and it appears a microcode update can't address it.

• Details of the vulnerability are under wraps: an embargo is due to lift early this month

• It is understood the bug is present in modern Intel processors produced in the past decade.

• It allows normal user programs to discern to some extent the layout or contents of protected kernel memory areas.

  • Patches move the kernel into a completely separate address space

  • The downside to this separation is that it is relatively expensive, time wise, to keep switching between two separate address spaces for every system call and for every interrupt from the hardware. These context switches do not happen instantly, and they force the processor to dump cached data and reload information from memory. This increases the kernel's overhead, and slows down the computer.

• At best, the vulnerability could be leveraged by malware and hackers to more easily exploit other security bugs.

• At worst, the hole could be abused by programs and logged-in users to read the contents of the kernel's memory.

• While Meltdown only affects Intel chips, another similar problem called Spectre has been found to affect ARM and AMD chips as well as Intel CPUs, which allows protected information within programs and apps to be read by other programs with just regular user permissions.

  • AMD claims there's "near zero risk" to its processors from Spectre due to differences in chip architecture,

  • ARM notes that the majority of its chips are unaffected.

 

Intel CEO sold stock while aware of CPU flaw

Source 1: http://www.businessinsider.com/intel-ceo-krzanich-sold-shares-after-company-was-informed-of-chip-flaw-2018-1

 

• Intel CEO Brian Krzanich sold off $24 million of his stake in the company months after Google had informed the chipmaker of a significant security vulnerability in its flagship processors — but before the problem became publicly known this week.

• Intel says the stock sale was unrelated to the vulnerability and came as part of a planned divestiture program.

• Intel’s stock price has only fallen about $2 since Meltdown was announced.

 

Intel gets multiple class action lawsuits over CPU vulnerability

Source 1:  posted by SC2Mitch https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/881874-update-intel-gets-multiple-class-action-lawsuits-over-cpu-vulnerability/

Source 2: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180104006325/en/Branstetter-Stranch-Jennings-Doyle-APC-Announce-Filing

 

• The lawsuit, Garcia v. Intel Corporation was filed Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2018, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

• The suit’s plaintiffs allege that the computer chips containing the fatal security flaws violate California and Tennessee law.

• Specifically, the plaintiffs bring claims for breach of warranty and violations of consumer protection statutes alleging that Intel’s selling of computer chips with this fatal security flaw misled consumers about the performance and reliability of the computers operating with this hardware.

• The plaintiffs seek to represent a class of plaintiffs who purchased Intel’s flawed chips.

  • “We look forward to holding Intel responsible for exposing millions of Americans to unnecessary data security risks, and will lead the charge to ensure that Intel corrects these flaws as quickly as possible”

 

What’s Coming Out on Floatplane? Go Over Current Week.

Rapid Fire

Spotify faces a 1.6 BILLION DOLLAR copyright lawsuit

Source 1: posted by mankeez https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/881809-spotify-faces-a-16-billion-dollar-copyright-lawsuit/

Source 2: https://www.whathifi.com/news/spotify-faces-16bn-copyright-lawsuit#VmmGk0GXVwGwdTS2.99

 

• Spotify is facing a $1.6bn copyright lawsuit from Wixen Music Publishing who claims Spotify has streamed tens of thousands of songs without a license and compensation.

  • artists include Tom Petty, Neil Young, Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello and many more –

• Not the first time:

  • last summer, Spotify faced a suggested $43m settlement, which is still yet to be approved in court, to resolve a class action from a group of songwriters and publishes whose compositions Spotify streamed without a license

  • Spotify  also agreed to a $30m settlement deal with National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) for unpaid royalties in 2016.

 

HP orders worldwide product recall

Source 1: posted by SC2Mitch https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/882189-hp-orders-worldwide-product-recall-over-laptop-batteries-prone-to-fire-hazard/

Source 2: https://www.which.co.uk/news/2018/01/hp-issues-worldwide-recall-of-faulty-laptop-batteries/

Source 3:https://batteryprogram687.ext.hp.com/en-GB/Home/ProgramSummary

 

• HP has today announced that some of its laptops may contain faulty and potentially dangerous batteries.

• HP is asking owners to contact its customer service team immediately for a replacement battery.

• The machines, manufactured between 2015 and 2017 are:

  • HP ProBook 640 G2

  • HP ProBook 640 G3

  • HP ProBook 645 G2

  • HP ProBook 645 G3

  • HP ProBook 650 G2

  • HP ProBook 650 G3

  • HP ProBook 655 G2

  • HP ProBook 655 G3

  • HP ZBook 17 G3

  • HP ZBook 17 G4

  • HP ZBook Studio G3

  • HP X360 310 G2

  • HP Pavilion x360

  • HP Envy m6

  • HP 11 Notebook PC

• If your laptop is one of the models affected, HP will replace the battery without charging a fee

  • Don’t take your laptop to a third-party repair company, as the battery is not user-replaceable

 

HTC Teases NEW Vive

Source 1: posted by Armakar https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/882088-htc-tease-a-potential-new-vive/

Source 2:

 

• HTC have just updated their facebook cover photo with the caption "New Years RESOLUTION" and the date January 8, 2018

• The including drawing shows a slightly different headset

 

Rumour: YouTube to launch music streaming service

Source 1: posted by makeez https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/881819-youtube-plans-to-launch-its-own-music-streaming-service/

Source 2: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-07/youtube-is-said-to-plan-new-music-subscription-service-for-march

 

• YouTube plans to introduce a paid music service in March, internally called Remix.

• This would be the third attempt by parent company Alphabet Inc. to catch up with rivals Spotify and Apple Inc.

  • Google Play Music launched in 2011.

  • YouTube Music Key came along in 2014, giving subscribers ad-free music videos.

  • That morphed into YouTube Red in 2016, letting users watch any video without advertising.

• Remix would include on-demand streaming and incorporate elements from YouTube, such as video clips

• Warner Music Group, one of the world’s three major record labels, has already signed on

  • YouTube is also in talks with the two others, Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group,

  • As well as Merlin, a consortium of independent labels

• Talent:

  • YouTube hired former Warner Music executive Lyor Cohen last year to help oversee its music operations and serve as a liaison to the record business.

  • Earlier this year, Google folded much of the staff for Google Play Music into YouTube

 

VESA introduces new certification level for DisplayPort cables

Source 1: posted by Glenwig https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/881704-vesa-introduces-new-certification-level-for-displayport-cables/

Source 2: https://www.vesa.org/featured-articles/vesa-strengthens-8k-video-resolution-ecosystem-with-market-ready-dp8k-certified-displayport-cables/

 

• The Video Electronics Standards Association has announced that DP8K Certified DisplayPort cables—native DisplayPort cables that are guaranteed to support DisplayPort™ High Bit Rate 3 (HBR3)—are now available in the marketplace.

• HBR3 is the highest bit rate supported by DisplayPort standard version 1.4- that is 8.1 Gigabits per second per lane

• The new certification provides the speed required to drive 8K video resolution at 60 fps using a single cable, as well as multiple 4K displays.

• VESA is also currently engaged with its members in the development of the next DisplayPort standard generation, with plans to increase the data rate enabled by DisplayPort by two-fold and beyond.

  • VESA plans to publish this update within the next 18 months.

 

Apple joins the Open Media Alliance

Source 1: posted by JDE https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/881815-apple-joins-the-oma/

Source 2: https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-online-video-compression-av1/

 

• Apple has finally joined the OMA, joining Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Facebook on the quest to shrink online video sizes.

• The Alliance for Open Media is working on technology called AV1 that compresses video before it's stored or sent over the network.

• Mozilla, which supports an early version, said in November that AV1 cuts file sizes 25% to 35% compared to HEVC and VP9

• But compression technology is useful only when it's widely supported, and Apple was a major holdout.

• the first version of the technology should be finalized in coming weeks.

 

Amazon Echo Sponsored Results

Source 1: posted by mankeez https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/881805-alexa-may-start-playing-you-ads/

Source 2: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/02/amazon-alexa-is-opening-up-to-more-sponsored-product-ads.html

 

• Beware, thread title is fake news.

• Amazon is considering integrating sponsored results to queries made on the Amazon Echo.

• Ex. If you ask A-L-E-X-A to add an item to your shopping list, it will suggest you buy a particular brand

  • "Okay, I can look for a brand, like Colgate. What would you like?"

• It will also suggest items made by brands that you’ve previously purchased

  • The device may suggest to a shopper who previously bought Clorox's Pine-Sol to consider buying their disinfecting wipes.  

• Advertisers are particularly focused on search placement on Alexa because shoppers are more likely to select a top result on a voice assistant than they are on the web, where it's easy to scroll down or ignore written suggestions.

  • Is Google likely to do the same, or does their company culture/mission statement prevent them for doing so?

 

2017 was the biggest year for Electric Car Sales yet

Source 1: https://insideevs.com/december-2017-plugin-electric-vehicle-sales-report-card/

 

• December marked the 27th month of consecutive sales gains for plug-in vehicles, with 199,826 EVs sold in the US in 2017

  • Compared to 158,614 in 2016

• Breakdown by brand (top 5):

  • Tesla Model S: 27,060

  • Chevy Bolt: 23,297

  • Tesla Model X: 21,315

  • Toyota Prius Prime: 20,936

• Around 2000 Tesla Model 3 delivered in 2017

 

TESTED: iPhone X Burn-in

Source 1: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/01/it-takes-17-hours-for-an-image-to-burn-in-on-the-iphone-x-test-shows/

• Korean tech site Cetizen has tested OLED displays on the iPhone X, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8, and the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge for 510 hours to measure burn-in.

  • Note all these screens are made by Samsung

• They left the phone screens displaying a static image at maximum brightness for the test's entire 510 hour duration.

• Results:

  • The iPhone X first showed signs of burn-in at 17 hours, but the image retention was not bad enough to be noticeable in normal use.

  • The Galaxy Note 8 took longer to exhibit retention, but by 62 hours it was more significant than what was seen on the iPhone X.

    • A general user could identify the burned-in spots on the Note 8 at that time but not on the iPhone X.

  • By the end of the 510-hour test, all three phones had very noticeable image retention that could potentially be permanent.

  • All told, the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge performed almost, but not quite, as well as the iPhone X, and the Note 8 exhibited the worst retention.

• Apple has implemented certain anti-retention measures in addition to its usual fine-tuning of the iPhone display.

 

NIGHTMARE: India’s national ID database compromised

Source 1: https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/04/indias-national-id-database-is-reportedly-accessible-for-less-than-10/

 

• India’s national ID system, Aadhaar- which holds personal data belonging to more than one billion people - has been compromised.

• The access hole was publicized after an Indian newspaper paid a man less $8 USD in exchange for a username and password that allowed them to access information on any citizen by entering their 12-digit number.

• The seller — a man going by the pseudonym Anil Kumar — told the publication that deal deal was just one of eight transactions that he made that week. Each time he sold access to the database using a contact he had on WhatsApp to get the required admin name and password.

  • “I paid Rs. 6,000 ($95) to an anonymous person in a WhatsApp group I was a part of to create a username and password to the Aadhaar database for myself. I was told that I could then create as many usernames and passwords to access the database as I wanted. I sold each of them to make my Rs. 6,000 back,”

• In response to the situation, India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party called reports of a breach “fake news.”

• The ID system integrates a range of services, such as school enrollment, ration disbursements and other national/government projects. Facebook even embraced it via a pilot that encouraged new users to provide details from their ID.

• The database was developed using a string of independent contractors.

 

New Intel® Thunderbolt™ 3 controllers offer DisplayPort 1.4 support

Source 1: https://thunderbolttechnology.net/blog/new-intel%C2%AE-thunderbolt%E2%84%A2-3-controllers-offer-displayport-14-and-basic-peripheral-compatibility-u

 

• A new series of Thunderbolt 3 controllers are expanding the port’s capability for video performance.

• The JHL7x40 series controllers, coded named Titan Ridge, provide computer makers the same Thunderbolt 3 40Gb/s performance and feature set as Alpine Ridge, but also add DisplayPort 1.4 support.

• the JHL7440 controller integrates USB-C computer port compatibility so a Thunderbolt 3 monitor or dock can intelligently provide more performance and features when connected to a Thunderbolt 3 computer port, and basic compatibility when the Thunderbolt 3 monitor or dock is connected to a USB-C computer port

• It’s backward compatible

• Should be brought to market in 2018

YES I'm on the WAN SHow

My posts got included in this edition! Thanks guys?

Wait... I don't think I'm in here after going through the video.

 

@Slick

1 minute ago, JDE said:

YES I'm on the WAN SHow

Same bro

1 minute ago, mankeez said:

Same bro

 

1 minute ago, JDE said:

Wait... I don't think I'm in here after going through the video.

 

@Slick

 

Most of the show was about Intel... Which made it the most boring show I've watched to date... I started late but still, I left made dinner came back they still were still talking about it.

 

I understand it's a big issue, but let's try not to rehash it so much....

 

BTW PRE-RECORDED WAN SHOW FTW 

New Vive hype!

21 minutes ago, Egg-Roll said:

Most of the show was about Intel... Which made it the most boring show I've watched to date... I started late but still, I left made dinner came back they still were still talking about it.

 

I understand it's a big issue, but let's try not to rehash it so much....

 

BTW PRE-RECORDED WAN SHOW FTW 

NOOOOOOOO

 

MY TOPIC ISN'T IN THERE BECAUSE OF THAT

25 minutes ago, JDE said:

NOOOOOOOO

 

MY TOPIC ISN'T IN THERE BECAUSE OF THAT

At least you got mentioned here 

You were likely on the roster but Intel took over  Imagine if they had a Director there like in the movies, they would be pull out their hair for them not sticking to the script... The poor person would be bald from excessive pulling

Luke: "lots of updates..."

Me: "RIP my 6 GB monthly data cap."

1. WHERE "THE eF" IS THE LIST OF VULNERABLE CPU ???
   • featured link does NOT provide ANY useful information about vulnerable models or family code-names, making it UTTERLY worthless.
2. ...or is there a WORKING script to can test my CPU ???
   • ..., because Windows PowerShell is obviously useless too... IMG.
     Thx a lot.

I watch Mind Field and I'm in the UK (so no Red unfortunately), am I missing something? You just pay for each episode. Done the same with Corridor Digital's Lifeline and Colin Furze's World Wonders so I'm going to assume I can do it for any Youtube Red original series (don't know how to find them to check, I've only bought from channels I'm subbed to).

For the stock sales, what he does is schedules a sale a few months out, and then when it is near the time to sell, he defers the sale for another few months, thus in cases like the security flaw, he can avoid deferring the sale, and allowing  the sale to go through. It is basically a loophole for insider trading. You don't know when something will go wrong so you always have a sale scheduled that you can defer at the last minute if noting goes wrong, and if something goes wrong, you let the sale go through and you effectively have a paper trail indicating that the sale was planned before the issue ever happened.

My craptastic Intel Pentium G3258 is a G-series CPU, Which is not on the list. In the G-series secretly another type of CPU, or is it not so craptastic after all, and more fantastic?

 

Edit: I forgot two words. I do that too much.

Edited January 6, 2018 by kaj931

Just now, kaj931 said:

My craptastic Intel Pentium G3258 is a G-series CPU, Which on the list. In the G-series secretly another type of CPU, or is it not so craptastic after all, and more fantastic?

The G3258 is actually a pretty good budget chip when overclocked!

Hey @James spotify has that function you gave google music so much credit for.

it can also do that based on artist/band and playlist.

 

https://support.spotify.com/us/using_spotify/features/spotify-radio/

im really hoping this doesnt affect my intel CPU( a core 2 quad Q9650 set to 3.2 GHz with SetFSB )

I love @James' energy. Wouldn't mind see him host a couple videos. 

9 hours ago, VegetableStu said:

YOU GUYS TALKED FLOATPLANE FOR AN HOUR?! O_O

There's an extra 1 at the beginning of that.  The entire show was only about an hour.  

guys have you done anything to the sound? the last 4 WAN show's have came across super quiet on you tube i do use an iphone 7 and there sound through any receiver is stupidly quiet but the last 4 seem to be quieter than normal 

Intel - - - let's keep this secret

AMD - - what?!!!

15 hours ago, HimymCZe said:

1. WHERE "THE eF" IS THE LIST OF VULNERABLE CPU ???
   • featured link does NOT provide ANY useful information about vulnerable models or family code-names, making it UTTERLY worthless.
2. ...or is there a WORKING script to can test my CPU ???
   • ..., because Windows PowerShell is obviously useless too... IMG.
     Thx a lot.

The following commands should do it so long as you run PowerShell as administrator:

PS > Install-Module -Name SpeculationControl
PS > Get-SpeculationControlSettings

Depending on your settings, you may have to run this first:

PS > Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

Before KB4056892:

After KB4056892:

 

 

Anyone know were to find an actually useful list of Intel CPU's like with model numbers or if they affect the entire family's listed?

54 minutes ago, TikTak said:

Anyone know were to find an actually useful list of Intel CPU's like with model numbers or if they affect the entire family's listed?

It's the entire families listed. In fact, it's probably more. Google themselves said it would affect Intel processors back to 1995. I get the feeling Intel hasn't tested any processors that are more than 10 years old. It makes me wonder if they might not be planning to do anything about the 10+ year old processors at all.