About the processor vulnerabilities Meltdown, Spectre, some articles

[acheron]

udeb = micro-deb - stripped down deb package for use typically in the installer where early stages take place just in RAM

ddeb = debug deb - extension for the newer auto generated dbgsysm (debug symbol) packages

[GreyGeek]

Thanks! I won't be installing those!

[vinnywright]

getting closer ,,,,,,,,,I think

vinny@vinny-Bonobo-Extreme:~/Downloads/metdown-checker/spectre-meltdown-checker-0.28$ sudo sh spectre-meltdown-checker.sh 
Spectre and Meltdown mitigation detection tool v0.28

Checking for vulnerabilities against running kernel Linux 4.13.0-31-generic #34-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jan 19 16:34:46 UTC 2018 x86_64
CPU is Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4910MQ CPU @ 2.90GHz

CVE-2017-5753 [bounds check bypass] aka 'Spectre Variant 1'
* Checking count of LFENCE opcodes in kernel:  YES 
> STATUS:  NOT VULNERABLE  (114 opcodes found, which is >= 70, heuristic to be improved when official patches become available)

CVE-2017-5715 [branch target injection] aka 'Spectre Variant 2'
* Mitigation 1
*   Hardware (CPU microcode) support for mitigation:  NO 
*   Kernel support for IBRS:  YES 
*   IBRS enabled for Kernel space:  NO 
*   IBRS enabled for User space:  NO 
* Mitigation 2
*   Kernel compiled with retpoline option:  NO 
*   Kernel compiled with a retpoline-aware compiler:  NO 
> STATUS:  VULNERABLE  (IBRS hardware + kernel support OR kernel with retpoline are needed to mitigate the vulnerability)

CVE-2017-5754 [rogue data cache load] aka 'Meltdown' aka 'Variant 3'
* Kernel supports Page Table Isolation (PTI):  YES 
* PTI enabled and active:  YES 
> STATUS:  NOT VULNERABLE  (PTI mitigates the vulnerability)

A false sense of security is worse than no security at all, see --disclaimer

Kubuntu-17.10

VINNY