The Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities affect many modern computer systems, including those running FreeBSD. The following are the steps to patch these vulnerabilities on a FreeBSD system:
- Ensure that your system is running the latest version of FreeBSD. The Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities were addressed in FreeBSD releases 11.1-RELEASE and later. You can check your current version using the
uname -a
command. - Update the system with the latest security patches. To do this, run the following command:
freebsd-update fetch install
- Restart the system to apply the updates:
reboot
- After the system has restarted, you can use the
freebsd-version
command to confirm that the system is running the latest version of FreeBSD.
Note: In addition to updating the operating system, it is also recommended to update any third-party software that may be installed on the system, such as web browsers, as these can also be affected by the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities.