Intel has released a new firmware update for its Skylake CPUs in the ongoing battle against the surprisingly broadly effective Spectre exploit. Spectre affects just about every processor Intel has released since 1995 and could be exploited by nefarious individuals to completely take over a system with full root access. In short, it's a nasty one and everyone from the CPU manufacturers, to motherboard makers and Microsoft, have been scrambling for the past couple of months to patch the problem.
Intel's latest firmware update goes a step further than previous releases and specifically fixes up Skylake processors released in 2015 and early 2016.
"Ultimately, these updates will be made available in most cases through OEM firmware updates. I can’t emphasize enough how critical it is for everyone to always keep their systems up-to-date. Research tells us there is frequently a substantial lag between when people receive updates and when they actually implement them," Intel's Navin Shenoy said in a blog post.
He then went on to apologize for the bug being present in the first place and thanked fans for giving Intel the time to fix the problem.
OEM partners and third-party manufacturers will be receiving the firmware upgrade in the next few days if they haven't already and will, in turn, incorporate that into their own chipset and BIOS updates to help affected platforms shore themselves up against the Spectre threat.
If your motherboard manufacturer has released a patch for your Skylake system, make sure you get it as soon as possible. Although Windows updates can go most of the way to protecting your system, a firmware upgrade can go one step further to keeping you safe.
