microcode update for Intel N5105 chips?

[mimizone]

Hi,
I was reminded that older Intel CPUs had bugs and security issues that required new microcode.
I run Proxmox for instance on a N5105 Celeron/Atom based hardware.
Anything special I should do with Proxmox VE/Debian to check if the microcode is installed?

I remember that at the time of the announcement of the fix a few years ago now, InteI told the fix would slow down the machines performance.
So I am not sure it's worth it if I trust all the code from Proxmox/Debian packages that I install, and not even sure it matters for the VM operating systems.

Anybody installed such microcodes by any chance on a Proxmox system? Or it's not required?
I found some patches that can be applied to Debian Bulleyes for instance.

For context, Proxmox VE latest version is installed on that particular hardware and I run OPNSense firewall in a VM.
It's been reliable and performant so far.

 

[apoc]

InteI told the fix would slow down the machines performance.

Jep. Between 5-30% according to my experience and measurements.
So your milage may vary. Just consider how likely an attack is in your environment and if you can loose 30% performance.

On my own system it did not really bother me, as I have no specific requirements. So I installed all the microcode updates (AMD though). also make sure these patches are active.

 

[Cyrus]

I installed intel-microcode(3.20221108.1) from the Debian unstable repo on Beelink EQ59 N5105. I feel the device is as performant as before.

You can run benchmark programs such as pveperf before and after installing the microcode to check the performance difference.