HP reportedly starting to release BIOS fixes for Meltdown and Spectre flaws

Microsoft was first with releasing Intel’s fix for the recently discovered processor flaws for their Surface line of laptops and tablets, and now it seems HP may be next.

Users are reporting that HP has started publishing updated BIOS for some of their laptops on their website confirmed via a Powershell verification script to include a fix for the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities in Intel’s x86 processors.

Unfortunately, it appears HP has not started pushing out the fixes, so, for now, users will need to check HP’s support website for updates to their BIOS.

The Meltdown and Spectre Side-Channel Vulnerability exploit design flaws in processor speculative execution, normally used to speed up processors and use them more efficiently, to access areas of memory normally inaccessible, and could allow javascript on a website to steal passwords and other data from your PC. The flaws are difficult to fix, but remediation attempts at various levels of the software stack, from the processor to the OS to the browser have already been released.

Intel has promised to have a fix available which they said would be 100% effective, but the updated software would need to be pushed out to clients via OEMs like Microsoft and HP. Users are being generally recommended to leave automatic updates on to allow companies to push out and apply fixes as they become available.

Has HP released a new BIOS for your device? Check HP’s site and let us know your model in the Idea below.