Oracle has new fixes available for Spectre flaws affecting Linux systems on Intel and AMD chips. Oracle's latest Linux fixes: New Spectre, Lazy FPU patches beef up defenses

The patches, as expected, brought Linux's performance down, but their impact has not been as bad as feared. Linux performance before and after Meltdown and Spectre fixes Intel's Spectre variant 4 patch will be off by default, but users who turn it on are likely to see slower performance. New Spectre variant 4: Our patches cause up to 8% performance hit, warns Intel You can test performance after using our patches, but don't publish the results, say Intel's new license terms. Intel 'gags' Linux distros from revealing performance hit from Spectre patches Intel's license for its microcode security fixes no longer prevents developers from publishing benchmark results. Intel ditches Linux patch benchmark 'gag', offers 'innocuous' new license IBRS systems meanwhile will see a perf boost,' the researcher noted.īut Ionescu has also called on Microsoft to back-port the Retpoline mitigation because machines without IBRS 'are basically sitting ducks'. 'Retpoline is enabled even on systems that only have IBPB, meaning that these systems are finally protected against Spectre v2 even on kernel->user transitions vs the current state of affairs (where there's no protection). The addition of Retpoline will benefit systems with either IBRS or IBPB. Ionescu also ran a filesystem benchmark on a Surface Pro 4 with Windows 19H1 installed and saw a 'big improvement' in transfer speeds.

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