3

After unlocking disk the usual verbiage changed and there was a message about downloading firmware. I want to find out what was going on so I tried dmsg -

% sudo dmsg
[    0.000000] microcode: microcode updated early to revision 0xf8, date = 2023-09-28
[    0.000000] Linux version 6.1.0-30-amd64 ([email protected]) (gcc-12 (Debian 12.2.0-14) 12.2.0, GNU ld (GNU Binutils for Debian) 2.40) #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.1.124-1 (2025-01-12)

The microcode message is very vague. Is it unusual?

How can I determine what firmware I have, what I should have, and what is available?

Edit: top of changelog.Debian

intel-microcode (3.20241112.1~deb12u1) bookworm; urgency=medium

  * Build for bookworm
  * All trixie-only changes (from 3.20240813.2) are reverted on this branch

 -- Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <[email protected]>  Sat, 07 Dec 2024 14:49:05 -0300

intel-microcode (3.20241112.1) unstable; urgency=medium

  * New upstream microcode datafile 20241112 (closes: #1086483)
    - Mitigations for INTEL-SA-01101 (CVE-2024-21853)
      Improper Finite State Machines (FSMs) in the Hardware logic in some
      4th and 5th Generation Intel Xeon Processors may allow an authorized
      user to potentially enable denial of service via local access.
    - Mitigations for INTEL-SA-01079 (CVE-2024-23918)
      Potential security vulnerabilities in some Intel Xeon processors
      using Intel SGX may allow escalation of privilege.  Intel disclosed
      that some processor models were already fixed by a previous
      microcode update.
    - Updated mitigations for INTEL-SA-01097 (CVE-2024-24968)
      Improper finite state machines (FSMs) in hardware logic in some
      Intel Processors may allow an privileged user to potentially enable a
      denial of service via local access.
    - Mitigations for INTEL-SA-01103 (CVE-2024-23984)
      A potential security vulnerability in the Running Average Power Limit
      (RAPL) interface for some Intel Processors may allow information
      disclosure.  Added mitigations for more processor models.
  * Updated Microcodes:
    sig 0x000806f8, pf_mask 0x87, 2024-06-20, rev 0x2b000603, size 588800
    sig 0x000806f7, pf_mask 0x87, 2024-06-20, rev 0x2b000603
    sig 0x000806f6, pf_mask 0x87, 2024-06-20, rev 0x2b000603
    sig 0x000806f5, pf_mask 0x87, 2024-06-20, rev 0x2b000603
    sig 0x000806f4, pf_mask 0x87, 2024-06-20, rev 0x2b000603
    sig 0x00090672, pf_mask 0x07, 2024-05-29, rev 0x0037, size 224256
    sig 0x00090675, pf_mask 0x07, 2024-05-29, rev 0x0037
    sig 0x000b06f2, pf_mask 0x07, 2024-05-29, rev 0x0037
    sig 0x000b06f5, pf_mask 0x07, 2024-05-29, rev 0x0037
    sig 0x000906a3, pf_mask 0x80, 2024-06-03, rev 0x0435, size 223232
    sig 0x000906a4, pf_mask 0x80, 2024-06-03, rev 0x0435
    sig 0x000a06a4, pf_mask 0xe6, 2024-08-02, rev 0x0020, size 138240
    sig 0x000b06a2, pf_mask 0xe0, 2024-05-29, rev 0x4123, size 220160
    sig 0x000b06a3, pf_mask 0xe0, 2024-05-29, rev 0x4123
    sig 0x000b06a8, pf_mask 0xe0, 2024-05-29, rev 0x4123
    sig 0x000c06f2, pf_mask 0x87, 2024-06-20, rev 0x21000283, size 560128
    sig 0x000c06f1, pf_mask 0x87, 2024-06-20, rev 0x21000283
  * source: update symlinks to reflect id of the latest release, 20241112
  * Update changelog for 3.20240910.1 and 3.20240813.1 with new information:
    INTEL-SA-1103 was addressed by 3.20240813.1 for some processor models,
    and not by 3.20240910. INTEL-SA-1079 was addressed by 3.20240910.1 for
    some processor models.

 -- Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <[email protected]>  Thu, 14 Nov 2024 15:37:40 -0300
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1 Answer 1

Reset to default
6

This message means that the kernel itself took care of updating the microcode, very early during boot; see the message here.

To see what microcode version you currently have, run

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/microcode/version

Microcode in your case is provided by the intel-microcode package; you’ll see the details of updates in /usr/share/doc/intel-microcode/changelog.Debian.gz. If your system is up-to-date, you’ll be running the latest available microcode anyway.

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  • Thank you. So the version I am running now is 0xf8. And I witnessed that (once) being downloaded from somewhere as I booted up earlier. I can not see that number 0xf8 (using grep) anywhere in the file changelog.Debian, whose first entry I have added to my question. So that's one problem - I don't know if 0xf8 corresponds to. intel-microcode (3.20241112.1~deb12u1) bookworm. Another problem is I don't know if I should be running intel-microcode (3.20241112.1~deb12u1) bookworm. Yet another problem is I don't know how to find and load the correct one. Commented Feb 14 at 5:28
  • 1
    You need to look for “f8” without the prefix; you’ll find “0x00f8” entries. If you look at the package tracker, you’ll see that the version you have is the latest available in Debian. There’s a newer release from a few days ago from Intel, with an update from 0xf8 to 0xfa for Core Gen 8 CPUs; it should be uploaded to Debian in the near future. Commented Feb 14 at 8:52

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