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Microsoft's 'Meltdown' Patch For Windows 10 Contains a Fatal Flaw (bleepingcomputer.com)
An anonymous reader quotes BleepingComputer: Microsoft's patches for the Meltdown vulnerability have had a fatal flaw all these past months, according to Alex Ionescu, a security researcher with cyber-security firm Crowdstrike. Only patches for Windows 10 versions were affected, the researcher wrote today in a tweet. Microsoft quietly fixed the issue on Windows 10 Redstone 4 (v1803), also known as the April 2018 Update, released on Monday.
"Welp, it turns out the Meltdown patches for Windows 10 had a fatal flaw: calling NtCallEnclave returned back to user space with the full kernel page table directory, completely undermining the mitigation," Ionescu wrote. Ionescu pointed out that older versions of Windows 10 are still running with outdated and bypass-able Meltdown patches.
Wednesday Microsoft issued a security update, but it wasn't to backport the "fixed" Meltdown patches for older Windows 10 versions. Instead, the emergency update fixed a vulnerability in the Windows Host Compute Service Shim (hcsshim) library (CVE-2018-8115) that allows an attacker to remotely execute code on vulnerable systems.
"Welp, it turns out the Meltdown patches for Windows 10 had a fatal flaw: calling NtCallEnclave returned back to user space with the full kernel page table directory, completely undermining the mitigation," Ionescu wrote. Ionescu pointed out that older versions of Windows 10 are still running with outdated and bypass-able Meltdown patches.
Wednesday Microsoft issued a security update, but it wasn't to backport the "fixed" Meltdown patches for older Windows 10 versions. Instead, the emergency update fixed a vulnerability in the Windows Host Compute Service Shim (hcsshim) library (CVE-2018-8115) that allows an attacker to remotely execute code on vulnerable systems.
too many of our servers, desktops, and laptops will no longer boot after installing Meltdown/Spectre fixes. The usual symptom is that they show the Windows loading screen then a blank screen.
The Windows 10 update system feels like "free to play" games, where they actually make you pay more than what you would have paid outright if you made an upfront purchase.
While I like the some of the new features (linux support, more responsive UI, remote xbox streaming, etc), they make sure unwanted cruft comes with it, since you can no longer choose to include or not include many components. Also they took away the excellent Windows Media Center which still has no free alternative.
It is now too late, but I wish we stayed with the WIndows 7 model, where a purchase meant a purchase not a subscription.
They pretty much have to back port any new meltdown and specter patches to 1607 and 1507 LTSC and Windows Server 2016 (based on 1607 kernel) so I imagine there will be backports coming at least for Win 10 and possibly even for 7...Enterprises will demand it.
First they totally fscked up the Windows 7/Server 2008 Meltdown "fix" allowing every user program access any RAM area they wanted
https://www.theregister.co.uk/...
And now again they fsck it all up in another version as well by returning the data the patch was supposed to not return. But the way they did fsck it up was totally different than the Windows 7 way. They have so many fuckups, they create different ones for each OS version, cause one fuckup is not enough. Code reuse with audited, well written code would be too easy for two OS kernels that are so much the same obviously. No 7 and 10 are not different. Still the same kernel where even many drivers work fine the same.
These clowns are too stupid to write any OS for more than a non-programmable calculator.
And not enough time to test them properly. Microsoft should just support one version of Windows 10, getting rid of superfluous versions like 10S and take the LTSB version and just support that without the six monthly "Windows as a service" updates.
What does microsoft pay its engineers for exactly?
please die, we're tired of your geopolitical propaganda and fake security
Its only been a few days.
I'm pretty sure more fatal flaws will be discovered and targeted quickly. /s
Apple's developers are a bunch of incompetent that store passwords as plain text files or let you login entering no password. Microsoft's are another bunch of incompetents patching bugs with faulty patches. Wtf is this?
Tell me where all the threat are attacking these flaws in hardware?? Then we have 6 months to fix them and still we get crap solutions from people who are supposed to be smart enough to devise a solution. You would think in six months a better more sound solution could have been created? Or maybe were just throwing bandages on a cancerous growth that won't go away? Have to wonder how competent people at Intel, Apple, Microsoft, Google are?
Fixed the title for you. :-)
Microsoft's downfall began when they fired most of their QA staff.
Everything has gone to shit since.
http://www.businessinsider.com...
Satya Nadella has fucked things up, but it's not too late to fire him.
However, the real problem is, at it's root "windows 10" itself. If you are not the paying customer, you ARE the product. And the tiny percentage of people that have actually paid for 10 are products that paid to be sold.
Does no one else think it odd that you can still reinstall and verify win xp licenses? Or that win 7 licenses are still actively for sale ?
Indeed, it is probably more secure, I do not understand why Microsoft is trying to fix Intel's problem. Now, they created their own mess and fell in it.
Not everything runs with Nginx, and it has its flaws, too. You are probably unaware of that, so I wonder why someone would keep your pathetic skills on the payroll.
Who died?
Microsoft really does have one unbeatable strength.
Their advertisements have cornered the market on happy smiling toothy, stylishly dressed twenty-something negroes, mulattoes, and various mud people of indeterminate race and gender, all toothily standing around and grinning at an open laptop sporting a Windows logo. And there's always the petite pink haired chick in a black miniskirt and a hoop earring too. They grin and nod like monkeys as though watching Windows boot was akin to watching the live launch of an Atlas V.
And yet when the cameras stop, the actors all go back to their real life of watching negro rappers on their smartphone or playing Bejewled classic, or watching mud people pron. Their real life is a low-brow affair of consumerism and affirmative action jobs. None of them owns a laptop. None of them would be able to do anything with Windows anyway, other than perhaps open a web browser.
Yes, yes it does: you have to run Windows to apply it.