[clug] Trusted Platform Module privacy

[Bryan Kilgallin]

Thanks, George:

> Here is something else to read about, but do not bother stressing out
> or worrying about it. Just ignore it for now.
> 
> 
> https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2018/08/17/foreshadow-flaw-found-in-intel-cpus-what-to-do/
{Which CPUs are affected?

If you bought an Intel system after late-2015 (Skylake onwards) there’s 
a high chance it will contain an affected CPU (AMD and other vendors 
that don’t use SGX are not at risk):

     Intel Core i3/i5/i7/M processor (45nm and 32nm)}

My laptop has an Intel Core i5-2520M processor. So I found the following 
article.

https://blog.ubuntu.com/2018/08/14/ubuntu-updates-for-l1-terminal-fault-vulnerabilities

{Kernel updates are being released for the following supported Ubuntu 
series:

     18.04 LTS (Bionic)}
Which OS version is installed.

{Updated Ubuntu kernels have the ability to report how the system is 
currently affected by L1TF. To check your system, read the contents of the

/sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/l1tf

file.

/sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/l1tf}

My laptop did not report the following. So it is vulnerable.
{Processors that aren’t vulnerable to L1TF will report the following:

$ cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/l1tf

Not affected}

Rather, the following applies.
{Intel processors that lack VMX support will not report VMX status:

$ cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/l1tf

Mitigation: PTE Inversion

We recommend that you apply available updates at your earliest convenience.}

So my laptop lacks VMX support. Yet I guess that I need to find out how 
to apply such an update!
-- 
members.iinet.net.au/~kilgallin/