If your PC is running on an Intel processor, it’s best not to run those Intel patches designed to address the Spectre vulnerability just yet. Apparently, Intel’s bug-fixing patch has a bug itself causing unwanted reboots.
Intel tells customers to stop using its faulty Spectre patch https://t.co/Ngy463GiSI
— Engadget (@engadget) January 22, 2018
Intel issued an announcement Monday confirming that it has now identified the cause of the reboot issue experience by Intel users. Last week, numerous users complained of spontaneous reboots of their computers after installing Intel’s Spectre/Meltdown patch.
Aside from confirming that the company has zeroed in on the problem, the post by executive vice president Navin Shenoy also issued recommendations for owners of affected Intel chips.
“We recommend that OEMs, cloud service providers, system manufacturers, software vendors, and end users stop deployment of current versions on specific platforms as they may introduce higher than expected reboots and other unpredictable system behavior.”
Affected Intel chips include the Broadwell, Haswell, Coffee Lake, Kaby Lake, Skylake, and Ivy Bridge series. However, some models seem to be affected by the reboot bug more than others.
According to Shenoy, an early fix is already available, but it is still being tested by industry partners. Once confirmed to be error-free the company will ”make a final release available once that testing has been completed.”
So what does this announcement mean for PC users with affected Intel chips? If you own a Haswell or Broadwell-based CPU and have not yet made any updates relative to the Spectre/Meltdown bug, just continue to do nothing for the time being. Intel will announce when the new bug-free patch will be available.
The entire computing world was shocked by the discovery of Spectre and Meltdown, vulnerabilities in the system that could be exploited by hackers. Apparently, everyone’s been sitting on the bug for more than two decades before it was discovered by experts.
[Featured image via Intel]