About six years ago, vulnerabilities were discovered that affected most Intel and AMD processors.
The vulnerabilities, Spectre and Meltdown, can be exploited to read sensitive data from attacked computer systems.
ADVERTISEMENT. Intel released an update for one of the Spectre variants, disclosed officially on March 8, 2022.
Microsoft implemented mitigations in client and server versions of Windows as a response to this.
The main reason for this seems to be potential performance impacts that comes with the implementation.
This guide walks you through the steps of configuring Windows to enable the mitigations and finding out if your processor is affected.
The very first thing you may want to do is check if your processor is on Intel's list of affected CPUs.
Load the following two resource websites: Nist.gov and Intel's Affected Processors website.
Check to see if the installed processor is listed on these websites.
You may want to use the browser's search to find the information quickly.
Microsoft's Registry tweak to protect against the vulnerability.
If your processor is on the list, you may change the Registry keys to enable the mitigations.
While I cannot recommend not enabling these mitigations, the risk of attacks against home PCs is most of the time neglectable.
Backup: it is highly recommended to back up the system drive before implementing the mitigation.
Not with Windows' Backup App, which is useless for the purpose, but with a full backup program like Paragon Backup & Recovery Free.
Open Start, type CMD, and select Run as administrator.
Tip: you may want to monitor performance to make sure that day-to-day operations are not severely impacted by the mitigation.
While it may be critical for organizations to implement the mitigation, risks of attacks are relatively low for home users.
Microsoft publishes new Registry mitigation for Intel processors.
Microsoft published a new mitigation that protects Windows devices with Intel processors against attacks exploiting a vulnerability called Spectre.
This Cyber News was published on www.ghacks.net. Publication date: Mon, 15 Apr 2024 06:13:04 +0000