Intel revealed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that it will not be issuing Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability Spectre patches to a number of older Intel processor families , potentially leaving many customers vulnerable to the security exploit . Intel claims the processors affected are mostly implemented as closed systems , so they aren ’ t at risk from the Spectre exploit , and that the age of these processors means they have limited commercial availability . The processors which Intel won ’ t be patching Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability include four lines from 2007 , Penryn , Yorkfield , and Wolfdale , along with Bloomfield ( 2009 ) , Clarksfield ( 2009 ) , Jasper Forest ( 2010 ) and the Intel Atom SoFIA processors from 2015 . According to Tom ’ s Hardware , Intel ’ s decision not to patch Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability these products could stem from the relative difficulty of patching Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the Spectre exploit on older systems . “ After a comprehensive investigation of the microarchitectures and microcode capabilities for these products , Intel has determined to not release Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability microcode updates for these products , ” Intel said . Because of the nature of the Spectre exploit , patches for it need to be delivered Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability as an operating system or BIOS update , and if Microsoft and motherboard OEMs aren ’ t going to distribute Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the patches , developing Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability them isn ’ t much of a priority . “ However , the real reason Intel gave up on patching Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability these systems seems to be that neither motherboard makers nor Microsoft may be willing to update Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability systems sold a decade ago , ” Tom ’ s Hardware reports . It sounds bad , but as Intel pointed out , these are all relatively old processors — with the exception of the Intel Atom SoFIA processor , which came out in 2015 — and it ’ s unlikely they ’ re used in any high-security environments . The Spectre exploit is a serious security vulnerability to be sure , but as some commentators have pointed out in recent months , it ’ s not the kind of exploit the average user needs to worry about . “ We ’ ve now completed release Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability of microcode updates for Intel microprocessor products launched in the last 9+ years that required protection against the side-channel vulnerabilities discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability by Google Project Zero , ” said an Intel spokseperson . “ However , as indicated in our latest microcode revision guidance , we will not be providing Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability updated microcode for a select number of older platforms for several reasons , including limited ecosystem support and customer feedback. ” If you have an old Penryn processor toiling away in an office PC somewhere , you ’ re probably more at risk for a malware infection arising from a bad download than you are susceptible to something as technically sophisticated as the Spectre or Meltdown vulnerabilities .

Intel has issued Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability fresh `` microcode revision guidance '' that reveals it won ’ t address Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the Meltdown and Spectre design flaws in all of its vulnerable processors – in some cases because it 's too tricky to remove the Spectre v2 class of vulnerabilities . The new guidance , issued April 2 , adds a “ stopped ” status to Intel ’ s “ production status ” category in its array of available Meltdown and Spectre security updates . `` Stopped '' indicates there will be no microcode patch to kill off Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability Meltdown and Spectre . The guidance explains that a chipset earns “ stopped ” status because , “ after a comprehensive investigation of the microarchitectures and microcode capabilities for these products , Intel has determined to not release Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability microcode updates for these products for one or more reasons. ” Those reasons are given as : Micro-architectural characteristics that preclude a practical implementation of features mitigating Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability [ Spectre ] Variant 2 ( CVE-2017-5715 ) Limited Commercially Available System Software support Based on customer inputs , most of these products are implemented as “ closed systems ” and therefore are expected to have a lower likelihood of exposure to these vulnerabilities . Thus , if a chip family falls under one of those categories – such as Intel ca n't easily fix Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability Spectre v2 in the design , or customers do n't think the hardware will be exploited Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability – it gets a `` stopped '' sticker . To leverage the vulnerabilities , malware needs to be running on a system , so if the computer is totally closed off from the outside world , administrators may feel it 's not worth the hassle applying messy microcode , operating system , or application updates . `` Stopped '' CPUs that won ’ t therefore get Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a fix are in the Bloomfield , Bloomfield Xeon , Clarksfield , Gulftown , Harpertown Xeon C0 and E0 , Jasper Forest , Penryn/QC , SoFIA 3GR , Wolfdale , Wolfdale Xeon , Yorkfield , and Yorkfield Xeon families . The new list includes various Xeons , Core CPUs , Pentiums , Celerons , and Atoms – just about everything Intel makes . Most the CPUs listed above are oldies that went on sale between 2007 and 2011 , so it is likely few remain in normal use . There ’ s some good news in the tweaked guidance : the Arrandale , Clarkdale , Lynnfield , Nehalem , and Westmere families that were previously un-patched Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability now have working fixes available Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability in production , apparently . “ We ’ ve now completed release Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability of microcode updates for Intel microprocessor products launched in the last 9+ years that required protection against the side-channel vulnerabilities discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability by Google Project Zero , '' an Intel spokesperson told The Reg . `` However , as indicated in our latest microcode revision guidance , we will not be providing Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability updated microcode for a select number of older platforms for several reasons , including limited ecosystem support and customer feedback. ” Now all Intel has to do is sort out a bunch of lawsuits , make sure future products don ’ t have similar problems , combat a revved-up-and-righteous AMD and Qualcomm in the data centre , find a way to get PC buyers interested in new kit again , and make sure it doesn ’ t flub emerging markets like IoT and 5G like it flubbed the billion-a-year mobile CPU market .