The chipmaker’s updates were meant to fix the Meltdown and Spectre design flaws, but have been causing computers to unexpectedly reboot.
Intel’s Core M processor, in the Broadwell chip line. The company halted updates to Broadwell and Haswell chips on Monday.
Intel pumped the brakes on updates to some of its processors Monday, telling phone and computer makers as well as users to stop updating systems until Intel finishes investigating why the patches were causing devices to reboot unexpectedly.
The company recommends that manufacturers and users “stop deployment of current versions, as they may introduce higher than expected reboots and other unpredictable system behavior,” said Intel Executive Vice President Navin Shenoy in a blog post .
The updates were meant to fix the Spectre and Meltdown design flaws, but now Intel says they cause too many of their own problems to install for the time being.
Shenoy said Monday the company has figured out why the patch is causing unexpected reboots for some of the affected chips, and it will use that information to release an updated patch in the future. For now, leaving processors unpatched means chips still have the Spectre and Meltdown design flaws. The flaws make it possible for hackers to access sensitive information, including passwords and encryption keys, from a chip’s memory.
“We continue to urge all customers to vigilantly maintain security best practice and for consumers to keep systems up-to-date,” Shenoy said.
Intel first acknowledged the problem more than a week ago, saying chips in the company’s lines called Broadwell and Haswell were causing problems after receiving updates. The company said Thursday newer chip models called Kaby Lake and Skylake are also affected.
On Sunday, Linus Torvalds, an influential software developer known for creating Linux, which underpins systems like Android and Chrome OS, repeatedly called the Meltdown updates “garbage” in a message on Sunday.
“I think we need something better than this garbage,” he wrote.
Intel didn’t immediately respond to a comment on Torvald’s criticism.
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