Intel Core 2 Duo Has 'Non-Fixable' Bugs, OpenBSD Founder Alleges
With the recent release of a microcode reliability update on Microsoft's site that addresses a handful of Intel Core 2 processors, concern over the pervasiveness of bugs in some of the company's latest processors is growing, especially now that OpenBSD founder Theo de Raadt released his own rundown of outstanding, fixed, and what he deems as "non-fixable bugs."
Details are still lacking about what, precisely, the June 22 patch fixes—not to mention how severe the actual bugs were—but in de Raadt's own words, some of the Intel's latest processors "are buggy as hell."
Additionally, "…some of these bugs don't just cause development/debugging problems," according to a de Raadt posting on a mailing list, "but will *ASSUREDLY* be exploitable from userland code."
If true, that could spell trouble for Intel on multiple fronts. As de Raadt notes, some of the errors found on Intel's latest errata (or error) list cannot be fixed via the standard microcode updates the chipmaker usually releases.
According to de Raadt, there are 20 to 30 of such bugs in Intel's latest errata list that cannot be worked around by operating systems and will be potentially exploitable.
Details are still lacking about what, precisely, the June 22 patch fixes—not to mention how severe the actual bugs were—but in de Raadt's own words, some of the Intel's latest processors "are buggy as hell."
Additionally, "…some of these bugs don't just cause development/debugging problems," according to a de Raadt posting on a mailing list, "but will *ASSUREDLY* be exploitable from userland code."
If true, that could spell trouble for Intel on multiple fronts. As de Raadt notes, some of the errors found on Intel's latest errata (or error) list cannot be fixed via the standard microcode updates the chipmaker usually releases.
According to de Raadt, there are 20 to 30 of such bugs in Intel's latest errata list that cannot be worked around by operating systems and will be potentially exploitable.
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