Micro Renovator Bringing Processor Firmware up to Code

Architecture and Background

The mitigations for Spectre highlighted a weak link in the patching process for many users: firmware (un)availability.

Vulnerability Analysis

While updated microcode was made publicly available for many processors, end-users are unable to directly consume it.

Exploitation and Demonstrations

Instead, platform and operating system vendors need to distribute firmware and kernel patches which include the new microcode.

Remediation and Defensive Strategies

Inconsistent support from those vendors has left millions of users without a way to consume these critical security updates, until now. Micro-Renovator provides the ability to apply microcode updates without modifying either platform firmware or the operating system, through simple (and reversible) modifications to the EFI boot partition.