Inquiry regarding Intel-SA-00088 security patches for Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities
Inquiry regarding Intel-SA-00088 security patches for Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities
Hi, I found a device at home that still lacks the patch for Intel-SA-00088 (Meltdown & Spectre). I’m curious about its risks. It’s used for everyday tasks like email, telework, and gaming. The processor struggles in some games and already limits GPU performance (around 15% loss). Will fixing it protect the main use—gaming? Are there resources showing how much each CPU model drops? And if installing it causes severe slowdowns, can I remove that BIOS patch?
Spectre/meltdown attacks are mainly theoretical and tough to use in practice (to be honest, no real malicious cases have been seen yet). If you're concerned, the performance downsides mostly affect I/O operations, so your everyday usage shouldn't be much affected. Here are some Linux benchmarks we looked at.
Spectre and particularly meltdown can be carried out very simply through a webpage.