Spectre and Meltdown Protection

[darmax]

With the update of the HP Bios F.47 the verification of the protection Meltdown and Specter with the Microsoft PowerShell script speculative execution side-channel vulnerabilities gave me all Ok (All True) while updating the Bios F.48 repeating the script protection is no longer active. What's wrong? Now I can not even go back to the old F.47 version of the HP Bios.

Thank You.

[MKazi]

@darmax

Thanks for reaching out to us on HP Support Forums. 

I came across your post and would like to help. 

I understand that you have an HP ENVY Notebook - 17-n008nl and while updating the Bios F.48 repeating the script protection is no longer active. 

During my research, I found that your HP laptop model is not listed in the list of the affected models (Source: HPSBHF03573 rev. 15 - Side-Channel Analysis Method | HP® Support)

Therefore the BIOS update may not be applicable for this specific vulnerabilities commonly referred to as "Spectre" and "Meltdown".

Hope this answers your questions.

Keep me posted for any further questions.

Cheers! 🙂

[darmax]

Thank you so much MKazi,

I think I understand that my laptop is not subject to these attacks (i see HP ENVY 17-n000 ~ 17-n099  have TBD on the link HPSBHF03573 rev. 15 - Side-Channel Analysis Method | HP® Support) but now that I have made the update of the microcode to the F.48 version of the BIOS that I have to do?

Also note that on the page of my HP product (Notebook HP ENVY - 17-n008nl [ENERGY STAR]) the update to F.48 is listed (sp84406.exe, F.48 Rev.A, 26.8 MB, 2 feb 2018 ) and F.47 is in the list of previous updates: old ones.

Wanting to return to the previous version, starting the utility  from the file of the microcode F.47 that I downloaded, the choice of downgrade is no longer possible (among the three possible choices: 1-Update is gray that is, the utility does not allow the downgrade, while the others are: 2- Create Recovery USB flash drive, 3-Copy).

I have to proceed with the downgrade, but how? Or keep the F.48 version?

Thank you again.

P.S.
Excuse me so much, MKazi, for my english and for my understanding.

[MKazi · Accepted solution]

@darmax

Glad to have you back.

You're most welcome.

You may rollback to the previous BIOS by performing a BIOS recovery. The steps mentioned in "Step 1: Recover the BIOS using a key press combination" from this HP document should help. 

Let me know. Good luck! 🙂

[darmax]

Thank you very much, MKazi, but for now I'm waiting for HP to be released a new BIOS to see if it will increase the security of the Specter attacks because I do not feel like taking steps that, due to my lack of competence, can lead me to make a mistake.

Anyway thanks again because in fact you have solved my problem in the best way possible.

Thanks MKazi, hi!

[MKazi]

@darmax

You're most welcome. 🙂

I'm glad you found this useful. It is an honor to share this platform with you.

Feel free to keep in touch for any assistance in the future.

Take care!