Meltdown, Spectre: Apple rolls out new update to fix the CPU bug

Apple on Monday rolled out an updated version of its operating system software to fix a major microchip security flaw that affected nearly all computer chips made in the last decade.

Last week, Alphabet Inc's Google and other security researchers disclosed two major chip flaws, one called Meltdown affecting only Intel Corp chips and one called Spectre, that left computing devices vulnerable to hackers.

"For our customers' protection, Apple doesn't disclose, discuss, or confirm security issues until an investigation has occurred and patches or releases are available," the company said on its website. The technology giant also released software updates for its Mac, Apple TV and Apple Watch.

Apple has rolled out macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 Supplemental Update for devices running on macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 and Safari 11.0.2 for devices OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 and macOS Sierra 10.12.6. For iPhones, the company has rolled out iOS 11.2.2 update for iPhone 5s and later, iPad Air and later, and iPod touch 6th generation.

The iPhone maker had said on Thursday it will release a patch for the Safari web browser on its iPhones, iPads and Macs. Apple had also said that there were no known instances of hackers taking advantage of the flaw.

The flaws, discovered by Google's Project Zero team, affected devices running Intel and AMD chips worldwide. Described as one of the worst CPU bugs ever, tech firms scrambled to roll out the fix. Intel has promised to roll out the fix but experts believe the update may end up slowing down the devices.

"Intel is committed to product and customer security and is working closely with many other technology companies, including AMD, ARM Holdings and several operating system vendors, to develop an industry-wide approach to resolve this issue promptly and constructively. Intel has begun providing software and firmware updates to mitigate these exploits. Contrary to some reports, any performance impacts are workload-dependent, and, for the average computer user, should not be significant and will be mitigated over time," said the company in a blog post.