Author Topic: Microsoft Windows Meltdown-Spectre patches  (Read 46549 times)

Offline hendy

  • SecureAPlus Developer
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 351
  • Kudos +16/-0
Microsoft Windows Meltdown-Spectre patches
« on: January 05, 2018, 12:02:09 PM »
Earlier this week, Microsoft released a patch for Meltdown & Spectre security vulnerabilities.
As a safety measure, users with AV are not able to download the patch immediately until their vendors have confirmed compatibility with the latest security patch.

Our team has already conducted tests using SecureAPlus 4.7.7, and we found it to be compatible with the update.
To clarify, being unable to download the security patch is not a bug on SecureAPlus’s part. Having to set this is a temporary limitation inherent to the release of the patch by Microsoft.

To enable receiving the security patch update, please follow the steps:
1. Make sure that you are using the latest version of SecureAPlus. At the time of writing, this is SecureAPlus 4.7.7.
2. Download and run the following tool to enable the compatibility check in the product update:
https://secureaplus.secureage.com/betadownload/SecureAPlus_Compat.exe
3. Go to Settings > Update & security. Allow it to retrieve the update and install it.
4. After Windows downloads and finishes installing the update, you will need to reboot Windows. Depending on whether other critical updates were installed, you may not be prompted for a reboot - in this case, you would have to do so manually to implement the changes.
5. After rebooting, please check your update history and look for an entry containing the following string:
kB4056892
This entry indicates that you have successfully installed the Microsoft Windows Security Patch for the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities.
Alternatively, your Windows version number should be at least 16299.192 or higher.

For Administrators who prefer to perform this manually, please follow the steps below:
1. Make sure SecureAPlus is already in 4.7.7
2. Set the following registry entry:
Key="HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE"
Subkey="SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\QualityCompat"
Value Name="cadca5fe-87d3-4b96-b7fb-a231484277cc"
Type="REG_DWORD”
Data="0x00000000”
3. Download and install KB4056892 from: https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB4056892

In future releases of SecureAPlus, this security update will automatically be available.


Offline hendy

  • SecureAPlus Developer
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 351
  • Kudos +16/-0
Re: Microsoft Windows Meltdown-Spectre patches
« Reply #1 on: January 05, 2018, 02:20:11 PM »
For Windows 10, here are the patches:
Windows 10 version 1709 (Fall Creators Update): KB4056892
Windows 10 version 1703 (Creators Update): KB4056891
Windows 10 version 1607 (Anniversary Update): KB4056890
Windows 10 version 1511 (November Update): KB4056888
Windows 10 version 1507 (Initial Release): KB4056893
The update can be downloaded from: https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Home.aspx

For Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 users, please refer to:
https://winaero.com/blog/windows-7-8-1-fixes-meltdown-spectre-cpu-flaws/

All of these patches need the enable compatibility to be set as mentioned in the previous thread. You can set it either by using the provided tool, or set the registry entry.
« Last Edit: January 17, 2018, 08:35:50 AM by hendy »

Offline hendy

  • SecureAPlus Developer
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 351
  • Kudos +16/-0
Re: Microsoft Windows Meltdown-Spectre patches
« Reply #2 on: January 09, 2018, 03:12:14 PM »
With the release of SecureAPlus v4.7.8, Windows update for Meltdown and Spectre is automatically enabled.
If you have updated SecureAPlus to the latest version, you are no longer need to download and install an extra tool to do this.
« Last Edit: January 10, 2018, 08:12:25 AM by hendy »