From owner-freebsd-security Tue Nov 11 21:58:28 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id VAA12413 for security-outgoing; Tue, 11 Nov 1997 21:58:28 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-security) Received: from room101.sysc.com (qmailr@richmojm2.student.rose-hulman.edu [137.112.206.126]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id VAA12402 for ; Tue, 11 Nov 1997 21:58:23 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from jayrich@room101.sysc.com) Received: (qmail 865 invoked by uid 1000); 12 Nov 1997 05:58:00 -0000 Date: Wed, 12 Nov 1997 00:58:00 -0500 (EST) From: "Jay M. Richmond" To: freebsd-security@freebsd.org Subject: Intel Pentium Bug: BSDI Releases a patch (fwd) Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-security@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk What are the freebsd team's thought on this? --jay -- As many of you probably know, a bug was recently discovered in the Pentium CPU that causes the CPU to hang when a certain instruction is executed. This bug has been widely reported in mailing lists and news groups. The bug enables an unprivileged user to hang the system, requiring the system to be reset or power-cycled. With information provided by Intel, BSDI has developed a workaround for this problem. A beta version of the mod for BSD/OS version 3.1 is now available for testing from ftp://ftp.bsdi.com/bsdi/patches/patches-3.1/M310-hangfix This mod may also be applied to 3.0 based systems. The workaround is enabled only on P5 processors, and should not be necessary on Pentium Pro, Pentium II or non-Intel CPUs. The mod is currently available only in binary form. We anticipate general release of the mod within a day or so. We are interested in hearing of any problems experienced with this change. We are also interested in hearing about testing on any non-Intel Pentium-compatible systems. Please send any reports to bsdi-hang-beta@BSDI.COM We are not at liberty to discuss the mechanism of the workaround at this time. If you are installing the mod in a source kernel tree, you will need to copy the files sys/i386/OBJ/{machdep.o,locore.o} to your kernel compile directory before rebuilding your kernel. Jeff - -- /\ Jeff Polk Berkeley Software Design, Inc. (BSDI) /\/ \ polk@BSDI.COM 5575 Tech Center Dr. #110, Colo Spgs, CO 80919 - -- To unsubscribe from this list, send 'unsubscribe' in the body of an e-mail message to 'bsdi-users-request@mailinglists.org' ------- End of Forwarded Message