xref: /linux/Documentation/admin-guide/hw-vuln/old_microcode.rst (revision 785cdec46e9227f9433884ed3b436471e944007c)
1.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
2
3=============
4Old Microcode
5=============
6
7The kernel keeps a table of released microcode. Systems that had
8microcode older than this at boot will say "Vulnerable".  This means
9that the system was vulnerable to some known CPU issue. It could be
10security or functional, the kernel does not know or care.
11
12You should update the CPU microcode to mitigate any exposure. This is
13usually accomplished by updating the files in
14/lib/firmware/intel-ucode/ via normal distribution updates. Intel also
15distributes these files in a github repo:
16
17	https://github.com/intel/Intel-Linux-Processor-Microcode-Data-Files.git
18
19Just like all the other hardware vulnerabilities, exposure is
20determined at boot. Runtime microcode updates do not change the status
21of this vulnerability.
22