Pierluigi Paganini February 14, 2018

Good news for administrators of Windows systems, Microsoft has added a Meltdown-and-Spectre detector to its telemetry analysis tool Windows Analytics.

Microsoft has added a Meltdown-and-Spectre detector to its telemetry analysis tool Windows Analytics. The Meltdown-and-Spectre detector was available since Tuesday when Microsoft announced the new capabilities implemented in the free Windows Analytics service. 

The new capabilities allow admin to monitor:

• Anti-virus Status: Some anti-virus (AV) software may not be compatible with the required Windows Operating System updates. This status insight indicates if the devices’ anti-virus software is compatible with the latest Windows security update.
• Windows Operating System Security Update Status: This Windows Analytics insight will indicate which Windows security update is running on any device and if any of these updates have been disabled. In some cases, IT Administrators may choose to install the security update, but disable the fix. Our complete list of Windows editions and security updates can be found in our Windows customer guidance article.
• Firmware Status – This insight provides details about the firmware installed on the device. Specifically, this insight reports if the installed firmware indicates that it includes the specific protections required. Initially, this status will be limited to the list of approved and available firmware security updates from Intel⁴. We will be adding other CPU (chipset) partners’ data as it becomes available to Microsoft.

The check for the status of the Operating System could allow admins to verify if Meltdown and Spectre patched are correctly working.

The antivirus check allows admins to verify if the running AV is compatible with required Windows Operating System updates.

The check for firmware status currently works only for Intel chips.

Meltdown-and-Spectre detector is available for Windows 7 through Windows 10 and requires that systems are running the February 2018 patch levels (Win7 SP1, KB2952664; Win8.1, KB2976978; and for Win10, KB4033631).

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – Meltdown-and-Spectre detector, Windows Analytics)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]