**[Q] Is there any mitigation for Downfall?**
[A] Intel is releasing a microcode update which blocks transient results of gather instructions and prevent attacker code from observing speculative data from *Gather*.
I'd never heard of a "microcode update", some info if anyone's interested.
These Intel updates: will they work on Zorin, or if things like Secure Boot / UEFI are disabled?
Yes. These are not related to Secure Boot.
The microcode and firmware deal with the hardware (motherboard) Operating System, not Windows or Linux operating system.
WARNING: UEFI firmware can not be updated in legacy BIOS mode
See https://github.com/fwupd/fwupd/wiki/PluginFlag:legacy-bios for more information.
Firmware metadata last refresh: 16 hours ago. Use --force to refresh again.
I read the link, but I'm not sure what to do. Just ignore it? ("This warning can be ignored if UEFI firmware updates are not desired.") I don't know how entwined (or not) are firmware, UEFI and microcode.
Please be sure to run your updates. Included in this recent batch is:
Changes for libelf1 versions:
Installed version: 0.176-1.1build1
Available version: 0.176-1.1ubuntu0.1
Version 0.176-1.1ubuntu0.1:
SECURITY UPDATE: infinite loop via a crafted file
debian/patches/CVE-2021-33294.patch: fix bounds checks and replace
asserts with errors in src/readelf.c.
CVE-2021-33294
SECURITY UPDATE: heap-based buffer overwrite and reachable assertion
debian/patches/CVE-2020-21047.patch: fix bounds checks and replace
asserts with errors in libcpu/i386_data.h and libcpu/i386_disasm.c.
CVE-2020-21047
Changes for amd64-microcode versions:
Installed version: 3.20191218.1ubuntu1.1
Available version: 3.20191218.1ubuntu1.2
Version 3.20191218.1ubuntu1.2:
SECURITY UPDATE: INCEPTION - information leak via speculative execution
amd-ucode/microcode_amd_fam19h.bin{.asc}: add AMD fam19h cpu
microcode and signature for Inception vulnerability
This item and link re Free Download Manager malware turned up in another thread.
Some of the Comments to the linked article are interesting i.e. be wary where you download .deb's from and verify file checksums for downloads from reliable sources. Does Clamav come with Zorin OS Core by default? - #8 by Thunder
Just a statement. I wanted to keep my answer here it short, similar to others in the thread, as this article was mentioned elsewhere with some extra context.