
On 18 January 2018, unwanted reboots, even for newer Intel chips, due to Meltdown and Spectre patches, were reported. Spectre patches have been reported to significantly reduce performance, especially on older computers on the then-newest (2017) eighth-generation Core platforms, benchmark performance drops of 2–14 percent have been measured. Meltdown patches may produce performance loss. Several procedures to help protect home computers and related devices from the Meltdown and Spectre security vulnerabilities have been published. The vulnerabilities are so severe that security researchers initially believed the reports to be false. The Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities are considered "catastrophic" by security analysts. It was disclosed in conjunction with another exploit, Spectre, with which it shares some characteristics. Meltdown was issued a Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures ID of CVE- 2017-5754, also known as Rogue Data Cache Load (RDCL), in January 2018. Accordingly, many servers and cloud services were impacted, as well as a potential majority of smart devices and embedded devices using ARM-based processors (mobile devices, smart TVs, printers and others), including a wide range of networking equipment.Ī purely software workaround to Meltdown has been assessed as slowing computers between 5 and 30 percent in certain specialized workloads, although companies responsible for software correction of the exploit reported minimal impact from general benchmark testing.

At the time of disclosure (2018), this included all devices running any but the most recent and patched versions of iOS, Linux, macOS, or Windows. Meltdown affects a wide range of systems. It allows a rogue process to read all memory, even when it is not authorized to do so. Meltdown affects Intel x86 microprocessors, IBM POWER processors, and some ARM-based microprocessors.

Meltdown is one of the two original transient execution CPU vulnerabilities (the other being Spectre). Intel x86 microprocessors, IBM POWER processors, and some ARM-based microprocessors The logo used by the team that discovered the vulnerability
