Nvidia releases software patches for Spectre flaw

Jan 10 (Reuters) - Nvidia Corp became the latest chipmaker to release software patches for the Spectre microchip security threat, indicating that the chipset flaw was affecting graphic processors as well as CPUs.

Security researchers last week disclosed the chipset flaws, dubbed Meltdown and Spectre, that could allow hackers to steal passwords or encryption keys on most types of computers, phones and cloud-based servers.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc, ARM Holdings and now Nvidia have reported being exposed to only the Spectre flaw, but Intel Corp has been hit by both.

The affected Nvidia chipsets include GeForce, Tesla, Grid, NVS and Quadro, the company said in a blogpost on Tuesday. (http://bit.ly/2DeYzXN)

Microsoft Corp said Tuesday its software patches slowed down some PCs and servers, with systems running on older Intel processors seeing a noticeable decrease in performance.

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Meltdown lets hackers bypass the hardware barrier between applications run by users and the computer's memory, potentially letting hackers read a computer's memory and steal passwords.

Specter lets hackers potentially trick otherwise error-free applications into giving up secret information.

Nvidia shares were down 1.6 percent at $218.49 in premarket trading on Wednesday. (Reporting by Laharee Chatterjee and Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)