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Huh ... that's very odd - it didn't show up for me late yesterday when the other poster mentioned seeing it! I even did a "Find" for the CVE number and nothing came up. Thanks!

I wonder why the fix wasn't added to the older OSs? (They edited again to take them out)

Maybe they intend to and it hasn’t been released yet. Maybe they did make changes to fix the old OS’s and just realized they didn’t actually stop all variants.
 
There is obviously no perfect solution to this (for some time, if that).

For one thing, this has the NSA's fingerprints all over it. If not involved from the outset in the design then taking advantage of the security flaw, otherwise incompetent (which I doubt). But, as previously, choosing to harm the security of the American public towards their own aims.

It seems beyond unlikely that such a severe security flaw could exist as long without the most interested corporate parties (i.e. Intel, Apple, etc.) being aware of it. Either way bad: they are truly incompetent and incapable of providing proper security or, perhaps worse, knew of this and consequently cannot be trusted with our security.

Apple's best remedy at the moment is a partial patch. Aside from that shortcoming, to do as much one would have to hold their nose and "upgrade" to the latest versions of iOS and MacOS. One needn't be reminded that many would be better off—all else being equal—not dealing with all the problems of iOS 11 for now. MacOS High Sierra is arguably the worst OS Apple has devised for the Macintosh. Beyond such things as allowing outsiders root access to one's system its features have presented users with an ongoing host of problems. But at the moment this most regrettable solution is the best on offer.

Given lead times involved it could probably not be before 2020 when a more permanent solution is offered, as in the chips within computers sold having been revised. That is likely optimistic as requiring rapid re-engineering by Intel and others. Until such time all modern computers remain intrinsically compromised due their hardware. Patching this over with software is just a band-aid.

This is a chance for someone like Apple to shine. To take it as a reason and opportunity to return to some basic old school values such as sound design with form following function, value for one's money, AND real security. Given the track record of Mr. Cook & Company, I am not particularly optimistic in this regard.

I would welcome them pleasantly surprising me.
 
Dear Apple;
I've changed my mind. Please take all the time you need to perfect the mMP and mMini. Hopefully by the time you're ready to release them, Intel will no longer be making processors from more than 2 generations back and you'll have to use a newer fixed variant.
 
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Update 2: Apple has confirmed that fixes have also been released for macOS Sierra and OS X El Capitan in an updated security support document.

Update 3: The support document that confirmed the fixes for Sierra and El Capitan has been updated again to remove references to these two operating systems, so it remains unclear whether or not Meltdown fixes have been released for these two older operating systems.

This is getting awkward. Apple, I'm getting really tired of your bull****.
 
Would be good to know what the facts are about Sierra and El Capitan regarding this.

[update]
But what about Sierra and El Cap? :confused:

[update 2]
Oh good, that’s clear then... :)

[update 3]
Clear as mud. :rolleyes:

Awaiting update 4!!
 
Would be good to know what the facts are about Sierra and El Capitan regarding this.

[update]
But what about Sierra and El Cap? :confused:

[update 2]
Oh good, that’s clear then... :)

[update 3]
Clear as mud. :rolleyes:

Awaiting update 4!!
Sierra and El Capitan are not updated to fix this. Apple has security updates in beta but it's not currently known if those will protect against either Meltdown or Spectre.
 
Sierra and El Capitan are not updated to fix this. Apple has security updates in beta but it's not currently known if those will protect against either Meltdown or Spectre.

Ok, thanks for clearing that up.

Slight out-of-topic question, can the keychain be accessed by the user on High Sierra? I've read topics in which users complain that they cannot access it.
 
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http://money.cnn.com/2018/01/04/technology/business/apple-macs-ios-spectre-meltdown/index.html

The headline specifically calls out Mac OS and iOS only. Granted CNN is quoting Apple, but it should have mentioned something about the other OSs.
That article and information is specific to Apple, probably because iPhones and iPads are popular devices so they had an article tailored to those. This would be more broader article:

http://money.cnn.com/2018/01/05/technology/spectre-meltdown-chip-flaws-what-to-do/index.html
 
Now queue the class action lawsuits against Intel. Billions of systems are being slowed because of their hardware flaw. Need all new computers, compensation for productivity loss, etc. /s
 
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That article and information is specific to Apple, probably because iPhones and iPads are popular devices so they had an article tailored to those. This would be more broader article:

http://money.cnn.com/2018/01/05/technology/spectre-meltdown-chip-flaws-what-to-do/index.html

Not broad enough. Yes, it is OS specific, but they also aren't going into impact relative to hardware. Apple's software as well as hardware are impacted. Dell, HP, Sun/Oracle, IBM.. they're all impacted.

But we already knew that here, didn't we? ;)

BL.
 
Yeah. His argument is like claiming iPhone is designed by foxconn and my bathroom was designed by my plumber.
Your plumber knows how your bathroom works. Samsung and TSMC know how ARM processors work. Don't try to tell me that they have no idea what they are doing. They aren't idiots. Apple wouldn't be letting them design their products if they were. Regardless if reverse engineering is illegal, they would still do it if they could benefit from it. Whether we like it or not, most people in this world don't play by the rules. Instead, they come up with their own as they go along. All of these companies want the same thing, and they would go to any lengths to get it. That is all I have to say on the matter.
 
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Your plumber knows how your bathroom works. Samsung and TSMC know how ARM processors work. Don't try to tell me that they have no idea what they are doing. They aren't idiots. Apple wouldn't be letting them design their products if they were. Regardless if reverse engineering is illegal, they would still do it if they could benefit from it. Whether we like it or not, most people in this world don't play by the rules. Instead, they come up with their own as they go along. All of these companies want the same thing, and they would go to any lengths to get it. That is all I have to say on the matter.

Apple DOES NOT LET THEM DESIGN THEIR PRODUCTS. What on earth are you talking about?
[doublepost=1515208367][/doublepost]
There is obviously no perfect solution to this (for some time, if that).

For one thing, this has the NSA's fingerprints all over it. If not involved from the outset in the design then taking advantage of the security flaw, otherwise incompetent (which I doubt). But, as previously, choosing to harm the security of the American public towards their own aims.

It seems beyond unlikely that such a severe security flaw could exist as long without the most interested corporate parties (i.e. Intel, Apple, etc.) being aware of it. Either way bad: they are truly incompetent and incapable of providing proper security or, perhaps worse, knew of this and consequently cannot be trusted with our security.

Apple's best remedy at the moment is a partial patch. Aside from that shortcoming, to do as much one would have to hold their nose and "upgrade" to the latest versions of iOS and MacOS. One needn't be reminded that many would be better off—all else being equal—not dealing with all the problems of iOS 11 for now. MacOS High Sierra is arguably the worst OS Apple has devised for the Macintosh. Beyond such things as allowing outsiders root access to one's system its features have presented users with an ongoing host of problems. But at the moment this most regrettable solution is the best on offer.

Given lead times involved it could probably not be before 2020 when a more permanent solution is offered, as in the chips within computers sold having been revised. That is likely optimistic as requiring rapid re-engineering by Intel and others. Until such time all modern computers remain intrinsically compromised due their hardware. Patching this over with software is just a band-aid.

This is a chance for someone like Apple to shine. To take it as a reason and opportunity to return to some basic old school values such as sound design with form following function, value for one's money, AND real security. Given the track record of Mr. Cook & Company, I am not particularly optimistic in this regard.

I would welcome them pleasantly surprising me.

NSA has nothing to with it. It’s a fundamental flaw in speculative execution when caches are used. It’s sinply something nobody thought about before, which is why essentially all processors which have speculative execution are vulnerable.
 
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Apple DOES NOT LET THEM DESIGN THEIR PRODUCTS. What on earth are you talking about?
You know that I mean PROCESSORS for iPhones and iPads not PRODUCTS. I did not think I had to clarify everything for you. But in the future I will be more specific.
 
You know that I mean PROCESSORS for iPhones and iPads not PRODUCTS. I did not think I had to clarify everything for you. But in the future I will be more specific.
THEY DO NOT DESIGN APPLE’S PROCESSORS. did you not understand everything I explained abouT how contract fabs work? Do you have any idea what a gdsii file is? What a tapeout is? Clearly not. I will say it one last time.

Apple designs it’s own processors. Samsung and TSMC do not design any part of apple’s processors. They merely take the design from Apple, plug the data into their fab machinery, and produce the wafers.
 
THEY DO NOT DESIGN APPLE’S PROCESSORS. did you not understand everything I explained abouT how contract fabs work? Do you have any idea what a gdsii file is? What a tapeout is? Clearly not. I will say it one last time.

Apple designs it’s own processors. Samsung and TSMC do not design any part of apple’s processors. They merely take the design from Apple, plug the data into their fab machinery, and produce the wafers.
Okay here it goes. One last time. I know that TSMC and Samsung do not DESIGN the PROCESSORS but rather MANUFACTURE them. Like I said, if they know how to manufacture them, they know what is going on with them.
 
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You know that I mean PROCESSORS for iPhones and iPads not PRODUCTS. I did not think I had to clarify everything for you. But in the future I will be more specific.
Apple has one of the best semiconductor design groups in the world, and they design—in-house—their own CPUs, GPUs and the dual-core, 600 billion ops per second Neural Processing Unit (NPU) that powers FaceID. All these processors are manufactured as a single chip (SoC).

Apple doesn’t have their own fab though, so they contract out the actual manufacturing. Fabs are expensive and Apple doesn’t need their own. It’s cheaper to pay someone else to make them. For the past couple years it’s been TSMC but before that Samsung, before that Global Foundries.
 
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Apple has one of the best semiconductor design groups in the world, and they design—in-house—their own CPUs, GPUs and the dual-core, 600 billion ops per second Neural Processing Unit (NPU) that powers FaceID. All these processors are manufactured as a single chip (SoC).

Apple doesn’t own their own fab though, so they contract out the actual manufacturing. Fabs are expensive and Apple doesn’t need their own. It’s cheaper to pay someone else to make them. For the past couple years it’s been TSMC but before that Samsung, before that Global Foundries.
Thank you for clearly stating the facts rather than overcomplicate and get off topic like other users have done. I respect you for your input and knowledge on the subject.
 
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Okay here it goes. One last time. I know that TSMC and Samsung do not DESIGN the PROCESSORS but rather MANUFACTURE them. Like I said, if they know how to manufacture them, they know what is going on with them.
You have said repeatedly that they design them. When I said they didn’t, you explicitly said I was wrong and that they did. Repeatedly.

Whatever.
 
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