Intel requests to halt applying Spectre and Meltdown patches for number of CPUs on certain systems

Intel sends word to manufacturers and end users to not to apply the current version of its Meltdown and Specter patches. This is for specific systems. They identified an issue and cause, making the system randomly restart/reboot.

Intel writes is traced down the cause of the restart issues as a result of the Haswell and Broadwell patches. Intel recommends that the current patches not be implemented on certain systems. To add a bit more confusion, they now also including systems with newer processors, such as the Kaby Lake and Skylake generation. 

“We have now identified the root cause for Broadwell and Haswell platforms, and made good progress in developing a solution to address it.”

According to Navin Shenoy, executive vice president and general manager of the Data Center Group at Intel Corporation, OEMs, cloud service providers, system manufacturers, software vendors and end users should stop deploying patches as “they may introduce higher than expected reboots and other unpredictable system behavior”.

Thus this effects certain microcodes, an overview can be found in this list. Currently, Intel is asking its partners to test the new code to speed up the process and release of new stable patches. The chipmaker has distributed a test version among its partners during the weekend and wants to release the final version once the tests have been completed, reports website tweakers today. 

For users with affected systems that randomly reboot, you'd need to wait for new updates from manufacturers, although Intel still writes that it advises consumers to keep their systems up-to-date. In the aforementioned list, Intel says it works on a stable patch that contains mitigations for the first Specter variant and Meltdown but has no protection against the second Specter variant. Recently, Intel reported that it was aware of restart problems on Broadwell and Haswell systems, but a week later, newer CPUs were also plagued by the same phenomena. 

Intel is urging for users to not install these patches. However, Intel has assured that it is working on an updated solution for the security flaws that will not cause the systems to randomly reboot and the updated solution will roll out once the testing has been done. The new patches thus, however, are being tested.