Free tool lets you check vulnerability to Meltdown and Spectre bugs

Gibson Research issued a free tool that provides a very convenient way to check whether your system is vulnerable to the Meltdown and Spectre CPU vulnerabilities. After downloading it, the light-weight tool performs a check and provides text-based output. You can download it over here, it will immediately let you know whether you need further updates to protect yourself.

Protection from these two significant vulnerabilities requires updates to every system's hardware–its BIOS which reloads updated processor firmware–and its operating system–to use the new processor features. To further complicate matters, newer processors contain features to minimize the performance impact of these important security improvements. But older processors, lacking these newer features, will be significantly burdened and system performance will suffer under some workloads.

This InSpectre utility was designed to clarify every system's current situation so that appropriate measures can be taken to update the system's hardware and software for maximum security and performance.

While the software is safe, it appears the Windows Defender “SmartScreen” protection flags the tool as malware. You need to download it via a non-Microsoft browser like Chrome, Firefox or Opera.