Intel 'Downfall': Severe flaw in billions of CPUs leaks passwords and much more
There is a serious security flaw in billions of Intel CPUs that can let attackers steal confidential data like passwords and encryption keys. Firmware updates can fix it, but at a potential significant performance loss.
Oh no.
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They really should be recalled like they were forced to when the fdiv bug happened https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_FDIV_bug
Recall billions of processors?
I hate Intel as much as the next person, but I don't want them to disappear overnight generating a unimaginably large processor shortage.
Then subsidize them for the recall, and take a percentage of their profits every year until it's paid back. How is it OK to pass on a manufacturer defect to all consumers?
I'm not saying that it's not a shit sandwich. I am saying that if Intel shut down right now we'd be pretty fucked. It would be far more likely for them to shut down production and walk away, start selling off patents and equipment. The strain it would put on arm to pick up the gauntlet would probably mean you're not going to see a new cell phone, television or new car for the next few years.
What the hell are they going to do for a recall anyway? Are you going to have them go back 5 years and try to recreate every model of CPU between then and now? None of those motherboards are going to support new things.
You get your five or $600 back on your CPU which ends up being $50 by the time it comes out of arbitration, now you need not only a new CPU but a new motherboard.
It's like wrecking your 15-year-old beater car, insurance company gives you $150 and says go find yourself a new car.
edit: Look, Intel is worth 150 billion. if they paid $50 per processor for a couple billion refunds, they'd just go bankrupt. They're going to run for years subsidized making 0 profit and losing all their talent. It wasn't their intent to screw it up, but here we are. There's a patch that makes slow processors slower honestly, that's the end of their responsibility other than to help people get it installed.
Blame the patent duopoly for making them too-big-to-fail™
We have a lot of that going on, but blame won't fix the outcome. Can't pass any laws to fix it, the government is run by the politicians.
