Nvidia releases update for GPUs - claims to be unaffected by Meltdown and Spectre

Nvidia updates drivers to combat Spectre security flaw, but claims it's not a problem

Graphics chip specialist Nvidia has confirmed that it's in the process of releasing a software update for its range of graphics processing units (GPUs) to counter the Spectre security flaw.

While the company plans to make this update widely available, its CEO was keen to stress that the company's GPUs chips haven't been affected by the security threats revealed last week in the same way as Intel and AMD.

Speaking about the company's graphics processing technologies at the CES technology trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada this week, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said "our GPUs are immune", adding: "They are not affected by these security issues."

Detailed by security specialists over the past ten days, the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities potentially enable attackers to read data held in memory that an application shouldn't have access to.

While no attacks or exploits have yet been witnessed in the wild, the security researchers who uncovered the flaws have put together their own proofs of concept to demonstrate the potential threat.

Intel, Microsoft and Linux developers have all endeavoured to rush out fixes to mitigate risks from the flaws - with the worst, labelled Meltdown, affecting only Intel CPUs. Operating system-level fixes for Meltdown appear to show a significant impact on performance.

Nvidia's latest batch of security fixes are targeted specifically at the software drivers that for graphics cards that run under third parties' operating systems, particularly Microsoft Windows.

Speaking to Reuters, security analyst Hans Mosesmann warned that Nvidia's driver updates may be problematic for data centres using its GPUs for mathematically intensive calculations. He suggested the flaws could cause a hiatus in organisations' server purchasing plans until CPUs free of the security flaws become available.

"This can end up being a potential issue in data centers and enterprise customers can take a pause in buying the servers," he said.

The driver updates coincide with a warning from the company, issued earlier this week, that it planned to clampdown on unauthorised use of its GPUs in servers.

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