---
title: "An Update on Meltdown and Spectre: What You Need to Know Now"
description: "It’s been about a week now since Meltdown and Spectre. Here’s  what you need to know: There are no confirmed threats out in the wild being exploited right now. However, for Windows 8 or 10 most fixes to applications, AV and the OS kernels, require either a manual update or hacking your registry. Thus, Windows […]"
image: https://blog.digitaleragroup.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Facebook-Shared-Image-Spectre-Meltdown-1.png
---

###### [Blog](https://blog.digitaleragroup.com/old/tag/blog), [Breaches](https://blog.digitaleragroup.com/old/tag/breaches), [Emerging Threats](https://blog.digitaleragroup.com/old/tag/emerging-threats), [Data Protection](https://blog.digitaleragroup.com/old/tag/data-protection)

# An Update on Meltdown and Spectre: What You Need to Know Now

**![](https://blog.digitaleragroup.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Felipe-SM-Passport-267x300-1.jpg?width=180&height=202&name=Felipe-SM-Passport-267x300-1.jpg)It’s been about a week now since Meltdown and Spectre.**

Here’s  what you need to know:

There are no confirmed threats out in the wild being exploited right now. However, for Windows 8 or 10 most fixes to applications, AV and the OS kernels, require either a manual update or hacking your registry. Thus, Windows 7 does not have the update automatically come in yet. MacOS is resolute, upgrade to Sierra to patch Spectre; but if you want Meltdown protections at the kernel you must update your OS to High Sierra 10.13.2.  *See the article **[here.](https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208331)***

  

**What You Can Do**

After a fair amount of research and grinding, Microsoft has released a tool you can run in Powershell. However, thanks to Microsoft user Andy Bentley, who has compiled an executable you can use to check the update.

You can **[download the verification tool her](https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Speculation-Control-e36f0050/view/Discussions#content)e** and use version 20 or 30 for Windows 7, 8 and 10.

Below is a screenshot of an unverified system once this script or executable has been run.

![](https://blog.digitaleragroup.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Spectre-Image-1-300x240.png?width=505&height=404&name=Spectre-Image-1-300x240.png)

**Windows 7**

For Windows 7,  download the appropriate version of the update for your system from **[Microsoft’s update catalog](https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=4056894)**

Once applied and your system restarts, check your system again with the script above. When completed, you should see the following on your system that is now patched:

![](https://blog.digitaleragroup.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Spectre-Image-2-300x172.png?width=506&height=290&name=Spectre-Image-2-300x172.png) **Windows 8 or 10**

For Windows 10 there is an [**automatic update**](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4072699/january-3-2018-windows-security-updates-and-antivirus-software) which requires you to change the registry that will allow automatic updates to show as an out of band patch.

The keys to add and remove automatic updates on Windows 8 or 10 are below:

**To enable the fix ***

- reg add “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management” /v FeatureSettingsOverride /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
- reg add “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management” /v FeatureSettingsOverrideMask /t REG_DWORD /d 3 /f
- Restart the computer for  changes to take effect.

**To disable the fix ***

- reg add “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management” /v FeatureSettingsOverride /t REG_DWORD /d 3 /f
- reg add “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management” /v FeatureSettingsOverrideMask /t REG_DWORD /d 3 /f
- Restart the computer for changes to take effect. (There is no need to change MinVmVersionForCpuBasedMitigations.)

There’s also a [**script**](https://support.cylance.com/s/article/Meltdown-Spectre-Registry-Tool) you can download from Cylance to simplify the registry edits needed. Please note that this requires you have a Cylance account for support.

Once the registry is updated and the Windows 8 or 10 computer has been rebooted, simply check for available updates. Once completed, verify using the above script to ensure the updates applied have taken effect.

You can also [**manually download**](https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=kb4056892) Windows 8, 10 and server updates from** [Microsoft’s Update Catalog](https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=kb4056892).**

Finally, beware that if your AV vendor is not compatible, the registry update could bluescreen your windows pc/server.

**Stay Safe!** We hope this information helps our community.

###

  

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