WARNING to Win 7 users: meltdown patch is WORSE then meltdown itself

HTC · Mar 28, 2018

Full story here:

https://blog.frizk.net/2018/03/total-meltdown.html

Apparently, Win 2008R2 was vulnerable as well.

EDIT

This section of the article should really be here in the OP:

Only Windows 7 x64 systems patched with the 2018-01 or 2018-02 patches are vulnerable. If your system isn't patched since December 2017 or if it's patched with the 2018-03 patches or later it will be secure.

eidairaman1 · Mar 28, 2018

HTC said:
Full story here:

https://blog.frizk.net/2018/03/total-meltdown.html

Apparently, Win 2008R2 was vulnerable as well.

Reference askwoody.com for patches that bork an OS too

lexluthermiester · Mar 28, 2018

HTC said:
Full story here: https://blog.frizk.net/2018/03/total-meltdown.html Apparently, Win 2008R2 was vulnerable as well.

You want to talk about the cure being worse than the illness. Soo glad I haven't patched yet. I sit behind a very serious set of security precautions so I wasn't really worried about be exploited.

HTC · Mar 28, 2018

lexluthermiester said:
You want to talk about the cure being worse than the illness. Soo glad I haven't patched yet. I sit behind a very serious set of security precautions so I wasn't really worried about be exploited.

From the article:

Only Windows 7 x64 systems patched with the 2018-01 or 2018-02 patches are vulnerable. If your system isn't patched since December 2017 or if it's patched with the 2018-03 patches or later it will be secure.

Other Windows versions - such as Windows 10 or 8.1 are completely secure with regards to this issue and have never been affected by it.

Other
I discovered this vulnerability just after it had been patched in the 2018-03 Patch Tuesday. I have not been able to correlate the vulnerability to known CVEs or other known issues.

Update
Windows 2008R2 was vulnerable as well.

lexluthermiester · Mar 28, 2018

HTC said:
From the article:

Exactly. The last time I patched was December.

R-T-B · Mar 28, 2018

Old patch is old news:

Only Windows 7 x64 systems patched with the 2018-01 or 2018-02 patches are vulnerable. If your system isn't patched since December 2017 or if it's patched with the 2018-03 patches or later it will be secure.

HTC · Mar 28, 2018

R-T-B said:
Old patch is old news:

Not to those unaware, don't you think?

R-T-B · Mar 28, 2018

HTC said:
Not to those unaware, don't you think?

I suppose a reminder to stay up to date never hurts.

HTC · Mar 28, 2018

R-T-B said:
I suppose a reminder to stay up to date never hurts.

Try telling that to those that updated in January and / or February ...

R-T-B · Mar 28, 2018

HTC said:
Try telling that to those that updated in January and / or February ...

The exploit remained unknown until today, and in general staying up to date is still a best practice.

jboydgolfer · Mar 28, 2018

Two of the kids run Windows 7 ,and recently I was setting up BOINC on my daughters computer. I noticed several updates were available. Normally I'll just click accept, and let it run its course ,but for some reason (this time) I actually went through them ,and checked them, and I selected none of them ,and then just turned off the notification for updates. I saw the security patch in there ,and I'm certainly glad I didn't opt to install it, even before I knew that it could cause a problem ,something about it just made me uneasy so I said "im not doing this".

AppleTree · Mar 28, 2018

R-T-B said:
I suppose a reminder to stay up to date never hurts.

The "must remain updated to remain secure" is absolute nonsense.

How can you be sure ANY patch to fix some vulnerability doesn't break something else in an even worse way? You can't.

R-T-B said:
The exploit remained unknown until today, and in general staying up to date is still a best practice.

"Best practice" != good practice, or correct practice.

It's only "best" because someone else didn't find a problem or a better way (yet).

Just look at medicine to see how much "best practice" has been thrown out because it was later found to be killing people.

I'll do things my way that keeps things running. If I have something so sensitive that I need to be "up to date", those systems will be completely offline to start with.

If it isn't connected to the internet, you're going to have to find some other way to attack the system.

theFOoL · Mar 28, 2018

And how does one get this attack? Just curious...

Aww OK got it

AppleTree · Mar 28, 2018

Doesn't anyone find it slightly disturbing that this patch had to be issued 3 times? 2018-01/02 then 03?

eidairaman1 · Mar 28, 2018

AppleTree said:
The "must remain updated to remain secure" is absolute nonsense.

How can you be sure ANY patch to fix some vulnerability doesn't break something else in an even worse way? You can't.

"Best practice" != good practice, or correct practice.

It's only "best" because someone else didn't find a problem or a better way (yet).

Just look at medicine to see how much "best practice" has been thrown out because it was later found to be killing people.

I'll do things my way that keeps things running. If I have something so sensitive that I need to be "up to date", those systems will be completely offline to start with.

If it isn't connected to the internet, you're going to have to find some other way to attack the system.

Most users that come here typically update with every update possible. Only a few here go through them with a fine tooth comb. Typically PCs that are patched to latest have a lower risk of being exploited than those left unpatched. The biggest issue is Personal Identity being stolen.

I fall in the latter bucket, it however is time consuming. I use askwoody.com as a patch reference though.

For ms to release a patch 3 times isnt new or disturbing/shocking, sometimes they find problems internally or end users do and report it, just get the march update.

Please do not make a mountain out of a mole hill.

Apocalypsee · Mar 28, 2018

I really get irritated when people use 'then' when it should be 'than' especially in the titles.

Melvis · Mar 28, 2018

Does this effect Windows 7 with Intel based CPU's or just Windows 7 in general?

johnspack · Mar 28, 2018

That's a shame, I really liked win7, rip. God I love linux now.....

R-T-B · Mar 28, 2018

AppleTree said:
How can you be sure ANY patch to fix some vulnerability doesn't break something else in an even worse way? You can't.

I can be sure the people who made the product know better than me, frankly. Just because of some isolated incidents of incompotence occur does not make me an expert on their OS internals.

AppleTree said:
"Best practice" != good practice, or correct practice.

Not neccesarily every time no, but most of the time yes.

It remains a best practice because knowing nothing more, it's the best and most proven thing to do.

AppleTree said:
Doesn't anyone find it slightly disturbing that this patch had to be issued 3 times? 2018-01/02 then 03?

It's not exactly the same patch each time. Each one is a "patch tuesday" rollup.

AppleTree · Mar 28, 2018

R-T-B said:
It's not exactly the same patch each time. Each one is a "patch tuesday" rollup.

I realized after I posted. It appeared they released the patch 3 times; not twice.

R-T-B · Mar 28, 2018

AppleTree said:
I realized after I posted. It appeared they released the patch 3 times; not twice.

Honestly, if you want to nitpick at something, "patch tuesday" is kind of dumb in general. What happened to patches coming out as they are ready?

AppleTree · Mar 28, 2018

R-T-B said:
Honestly, if you want to nitpick at something, "patch tuesday" is kind of dumb in general. What happened to patches coming out as they are ready?

Absolutely. I was against this model from the start.

Also, they killed TechNet years ago - you used to be able to see each individual update and download it as necessary, alongside each service pack. What we have now is just absolute crap.

I can't even tell you what the updates fix anymore, and and the KB articles are useless.

rtwjunkie · Mar 28, 2018

I have one W7 machine, my HTPC, and the last several months I just let MS install it’s updates as soon as they notified. That will teach me to not wait my standard 7 days.

I had a huge issue with booting and antivirus getting half uninstalled in the process, causing massive lockups till I cleared out registry entries and reinstalled antivirus.

Thankfully March didn’t screw anything up.

HTC · Mar 28, 2018

R-T-B said:
Honestly, if you want to nitpick at something, "patch tuesday" is kind of dumb in general. What happened to patches coming out as they are ready?

Kind of like @ work where we have two of these giant garbage bags (the kind that you literally need a forklift to lift it) only for garbage with oily residue. They set Friday as the day the forklift comes to take it to it's appropriate place: so far so good, right? Except ... sometimes you have both bags full and enough garbage outside the bags to fill @ least another bag by Wednesday ... but they only take it away on Fridays ...

What happened to take it away when it's full?

Not tech related, i know, but it's the exact same sort of completely stupid situation.

Apocalypsee said:
I really get irritated when people use 'then' when it should be 'than' especially in the titles.

Excuse me for not having English as my main language ...

Back on topic:

R-T-B said:
I suppose a reminder to stay up to date never hurts.

More often then not, yes, but as this specific case tells us, that's not necessarily good.

Space Lynx · Mar 28, 2018

We need one of these Bitcoin multi-millionaires to invest in sending about a team of 2000 programmers to a non-extradition country, and create a new OS that still uses Directx and everything we need. and M$ can suck it ~ dem non-extradition treaties make the Big Boi's get all sad ~

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WARNING to Win 7 users: meltdown patch is WORSE then meltdown itself

HTC

eidairaman1

The Exiled Airman

lexluthermiester

HTC

lexluthermiester

R-T-B

HTC

R-T-B

HTC

R-T-B

jboydgolfer

AppleTree

New Member

theFOoL

AppleTree

New Member

eidairaman1

The Exiled Airman

Apocalypsee

Melvis

johnspack

Here For Good!

R-T-B

AppleTree

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R-T-B

AppleTree

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rtwjunkie

PC Gaming Enthusiast

HTC

Space Lynx

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