New InSpectre release reveals if microcode updates are available

We reviewed the InSpectre application by Gibson Research when it first came out in January 2018.

The program checked whether Meltdown or Spectre patches were installed on the Windows machine and gave an estimate on the performance impact those patched had on the system.

Microsoft released a security update for Windows in January to address some of the issues associated with the vulnerabilities. The company published instructions on finding out if Windows PCs were affected by Spectre or Meltdown; soon thereafter, third-party programs such as Ashampoo Spectre Meltdown CPU Checker or InSpectre were released to make this even easier for users and system administrators.

InSpectre Release #8

Gibson Research released several InSpectre updates that improved the application's functionality. Release 7 listed information about the CPUID, and yesterday's new release, Release 8, shows to you whether a microcode update is available or not.

Intel revealed recently that it won't publish microcode updates for processors that the company has not patched already. The company published a PDF document entitled "Microcode revision guidance" which reveals processors with and without microcode updates.

Gibson's program uses the list to highlight whether microcode updates are available for the device's CPU.

Usage is still very simple: download the latest version of the application from the official project website and run it after the download. InSpectre is a portable application that does not need to be installed. You can run it from any location, or put it on a USB Flash Drive to run it on any device you connect the Flash Drive to.

The program displays the vulnerability status of the system on start. It shows whether the system is protected against Meltdown or Spectre attacks, and the performance impact.

"Microcode Update Available" highlights whether Intel released microcode updates for the processor.

Microsoft released an update for Windows 10 version 1709 that includes the microcode update for patched processors.

KB4090007 lists available products and CPUIDs. Windows users can download the update for Windows 10 version 1709 from the Microsoft Update Catalog website to protect against Spectre Variant 2 attacks.

The update is listed as critical but it has not been distributed via Windows Update or other automatic update services yet.

Closing Words

InSpectre offers one of the easiest ways to find out if a Windows system is fully patched against Spectre or Meltdown vulnerability attacks. The new version shows whether Intel released an microcode update for the process which should make things easier as well.

InSpectre application homepage