Well, this is a bit strange... Intel just published Friday afternoon CPU microcode updates for all supported processor families back to Coffee Lake "Gen 8" for undisclosed security updates. . Earlier this week was Patch Tuesday and Intel issued a round of new security advisories for various -- mostly software -- security issues. Of this month's security advisories, there was nothing pertaining to CPU microcode explicitly nor any "Intel Processor" advisories this month. But hitting this Friday afternoon now for the Intel Linux CPU microcode repository are a new set of firmware binaries... The mentioned change is "Security updates for [INTEL-SA-NA]." The ID format is for the Intel Security Advisory (SA) and presumably NA is for "Not Available." Given it's dropping a few days past Patch Tuesday, it would appear to be for some new and not publicly disclosed issue. Concerning as well is the scope of the new CPU microcode for the security update(s) are basically all supported CPU families. From Gen8 Coffee Lake and Whiskey Lake Mobile up through the latest Xeon Scalable Gen 4, Xeon Max, and Gen 13 Raptor Lake are all updated. Plus this is the first time seeing updated CPU microcode published for Alder Lake N CPUs as well as Atom C1100 "Arizona Beach" platforms. The link for this article located at Phoronix is no longer available. . Intel's latest firmware enhancements, spanning from Generation 8 through current processors, tackle unidentified vulnerabilities; learn additional insights.. Intel CPU Microcode, Microcode Updates, Processor Security. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
Use Microsoft Word in safe mode to protect against targeted zero-day attacks. That's the advice from Microsoft's security response team to counter known attacks against a serious code execution vulnerability in the widely used word processing program. . In a pre-patch security advisory, Microsoft said the flaw can be exploited when a user opens a specially crafted Word file using a malformed object pointer. This corrupts system memory in such a way that an attacker could execute arbitrary code. The link for this article located at www.eweek.com is no longer available. . Microsoft advises users to operate Word in safe mode as a precautionary measure against critical zero-day exploits and security vulnerabilities.. Microsoft Word, Security Advisory, Safe Mode, Code Execution. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
Get the latest Linux and open source security news straight to your inbox.