[Info-vax] OpenVMS with regards to Spectre/Meltdown

[Jan-Erik Soderholm]

Den 2018-01-18 kl. 00:21, skrev Norman F Raphael:
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bob Gezelter via Info-vax <info-vax at info-vax.com>
> 
> Sent: Wed, Jan 17, 2018 5:55 pm
> Subject: [New Info-vax] OpenVMS with regards to Spectre/Meltdown
> 
>  >VSI has released a letter clarifying that the relevance of 
> Spectre/Meltdown on OpenVMS systems (Alpha, >Itanium, and the upcoming x86-64).
>  >
>  >The original letter can be found at: 
> http://vmssoftware.com/pdfs/news/Customer_Letter_2018_Meltdown_Spectre.pdf 
> <http://vmssoftware.com/pdfs/news/Customer_Letter_2018_Meltdown_Spectre.pdf>
>  >
>  >- Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com
> 
> This link does not seem to work from here or on the VSI website.
> 
> Norman F. Raphael
> */Please reply to:/ norman.raphael at ieee.org <mailto:norman.raphael at ieee.org>*
> "Everything worthwhile eventually
> degenerates into real work." -Murphy
> 
> 

Anyway, the text was quite short. Here it is.

--------------------------------------------
Dear customers, partners, and friends:

VMS Software, Inc. has performed extensive research into the susceptibility
of the OpenVMS platform to the Spectre and Meltdown attacks. The following
are the results of our findings:

OpenVMS on Itanium
Our Itanium research has confirmed Intel's own findings that OpenVMS on
Itanium is not susceptible.

OpenVMS on Alpha
Our Alpha research followed two inquires: Pre-EV6 Alpha and EV6-and-later
Alpha hardware.
i. OpenVMS on Pre-EV6 Alpha is not susceptible.
ii. OpenVMS on EV6-and-later Alpha is so far not susceptible, as we have
not reproduced behavior that speculatively executes load instructions that
miss the data cache. Ongoing research is being pursued to further validate
our findings for OpenVMS on EV6-and-later Alpha hardware.

OpenVMS on x86-64
Early design decisions for the x86-64 port of OpenVMS have already
mitigated the impact of the attacks on OpenVMS:
i. OpenVMS on x86-64 is not susceptible to Meltdown.
ii. OpenVMS on x86-64 has limited susceptibility to Spectre. We will work
diligently to eliminate susceptibility as we complete the port.

As always, we look forward to your feedback on this and any other
vulnerabilities in future.
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