microcode_ctl-1.17-25.2.AXS4

The microcode_ctl packages provide microcode updates for Intel and AMD processors.

Security Fix(es):

* An industry-wide issue was found in the way many modern microprocessor designs have implemented speculative execution of instructions (a commonly used performance optimization). There are three primary variants of the issue which differ in the way the speculative execution can be exploited. Variant CVE-2017-5715 triggers the speculative execution by utilizing branch target injection. It relies on the presence of a precisely-defined instruction sequence in the privileged code as well as the fact that memory accesses may cause allocation into the microprocessor's data cache even for speculatively executed instructions that never actually commit (retire). As a result, an unprivileged attacker could use this flaw to cross the syscall and guest/host boundaries and read privileged memory by conducting targeted cache side-channel attacks. (CVE-2017-5715)

Note: This is the microcode counterpart of the CVE-2017-5715 kernel mitigation.

Asianux would like to thank Google Project Zero for reporting this issue.

CVE-2017-5715
Systems with microprocessors utilizing speculative execution and
indirect branch prediction may allow unauthorized disclosure of
information to an attacker with local user access via a side-channel
analysis.