Microsoft moves to block Intel's Spectre patch

The Windows maker is concerned about forced reboots

Microsoft's latest security update has blocked Intel's patches for the Spectre and Meltdown chip vulnerabilities, on the basis that Intel itself has acknowledged flaws in the software updates.

Intel has come out of the Spectre/Meltdown situation with egg on its face; not only is its CEO being investigated about a suspiciously-timed stock sale, but it is also facing legal action.

To top it all off, there have been many reports about the hastily-rushed-out software fixes introducing their own performance issues. Slowdowns have been reported on servers and home PCs, and patched machines have been rebooting themselves without being told to.

The offending patches have been called "garbage" by Linux godfather Linus Torvalds.

Microsoft has decided to take matters into its own hands and, rather than simply advising users not to deploy the Intel patch, has released its own update that will disable the update. The company said that the unexpected reboots were of particular concern:

‘Our own experience is that system instability can in some circumstances cause data loss or corruption. On January 22nd Intel recommended that customers stop deploying the current microcode version on impacted processors while they perform additional testing on the updated solution.'

Microsoft's KB4078130 update is being pushed to disable Intel's mitigation against Spectre (CVE-2017-5715), and the firm says that it stops the reboot issue.

A variant of the patch is available for advanced users that can be used to manually enable and disable the Spectre mitigation independently, through registry setting changes.

The release follows Intel's recommendation that users who have downloaded its patch turn to updates from its OEM partners, while it works on a bug-free version.