Firefox Update 57.0.3.x -->> 57.0.4-1

~]$ sudo pacman -Syu
[sudo] password for USER:
:: Synchronizing package databases...
core is up to date
extra                                    1639.0 KiB   144K/s 00:11 [#####################################] 100%
community                                   4.2 MiB   115K/s 00:37 [#####################################] 100%
DEB_Arch_Extra                           1994.0   B 0.00B/s 00:00 [#####################################] 100%
DEB_Arch_Extra.sig                        280.0   B 0.00B/s 00:00 [#####################################] 100%
:: Starting full system upgrade...
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...

Packages (4) firefox-57.0.4-1 python-setuptools-1:38.4.0-1 subversion-1.9.7-4 whois-5.2.20-1

Updates for firefox 57.0.3 to 57.0.4-1 includes patches for mitigating Meltdown and Spectre. While operating system vendors are pushing patches for their users it isn't clear how much is enough to stop the exploits. Some say this problem with kernel memory leaks due to aggressive processor action will continue until a firmware update or if the user just buys another non-Intel processor. Researchers say that most AMD processors are immune to the exploits. ARM and Raspberry processors are immune to the exploits too. It is also clear now that these patches will have performance hits especially with virtual machines, meaning those being used in cloud services.

Tech Joke..

What is 2 + 2 ?

Intel: 5

AMD: 4

Intel: Ok he's right but we were first.

Edit: It has been 4 days since I post this. All the major chip vendors are affected, I repeat, all the major chip vendors are affected and not just Intel. The performance hit from the patches will be the greatest on VM because users share the CPU.

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