Ubuntu 4182-3: Intel Microcode Regression Includes Update Instructions

ubuntu

December 4, 2019

USN-4182-1 introduced a regression in the Intel Microcode for some Skylake processors.

Summary

USN-4182-1 introduced a regression in the Intel Microcode for some

Skylake processors.

Software Description:

- intel-microcode: Processor microcode for Intel CPUs

Details:

USN-4182-1 provided updated Intel Processor Microcode. A regression

was discovered that caused some Skylake processors to hang after

a warm reboot. This update reverts the microcode for that specific

processor family.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Original advisory details:

Stephan van Schaik, Alyssa Milburn, Sebastian Österlund, Pietro Frigo,

Kaveh Razavi, Herbert Bos, Cristiano Giuffrida, Giorgi Maisuradze, Moritz

Lipp, Michael Schwarz, Daniel Gruss, and Jo Van Bulck discovered that Intel

processors using Transactional Synchronization Extensions (TSX) could

expose memory contents previously stored in microarchitectural buffers to a

malicious process that is executing on the same CPU core. A local attacker

could use this to expose sensitive information. (CVE-2019-11135)

...

Read the Full Advisory

Topics Covered

security advisory ubuntu system crash regression intel microcode

Update Instructions

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following
package versions:

Ubuntu 19.10:
  intel-microcode                 3.20191115.1ubuntu0.19.10.2

Ubuntu 19.04:
  intel-microcode                 3.20191115.1ubuntu0.19.04.2

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS:
  intel-microcode                 3.20191115.1ubuntu0.18.04.2

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS:
  intel-microcode                 3.20191115.1ubuntu0.16.04.2

After a standard system update you need to reboot your computer.