C++ Wage Slave@CppGuy@infosec.space

It's not just #Spectre and #Meltdown — dozens of similar CPU bugs have been discovered since 2018, and they're still being found:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transien

The foundations of modern computing are ricketier than we like to imagine.

In the past, I've always bought a decent computer and held on to it for years and years: it saves money and it's the green thing you do. My main machine right now is seven years old and still going strong. Updating the OS and apps is no problem — I run #Linux. But #CPU bugs make me wonder whether I should replace computers more often for security reasons. I really hope not.

en.wikipedia.orgTransient execution CPU vulnerability - Wikipedia
andrew_meir@andrew_meir@mastodon.social

Replying to @CppGuy@infosec.space

@CppGuy it’s good news and bad news. The good news: CISC architecture CPUs run their own firmware/microcode to implement a lot of that complexity, and some vulnerabilities can be patched. The bad news: RISC architectures tend not to, thus any chip-level vulnerabilities need a hardware fix.
As an engineer, I tend to the view that the more complex a system or component is, the more failure modes it’s got. Give me RISC any day. To be even more specific, give me ARM 😎

Jul 5, 2026, 20:28 UTCfr