Intel bugs and older tablet

[Sarouel]

I have an older tablet, which still works fine for me, but unfortunately the manufacturer/distributor stopped sending out security updates mid-2015. Didn't bug me too much, but with the Intel bugs Meltdown and Spectre my opinion has changed.
Does anybody have a similiar problem and any ideas how to get a secure tablet again?
I'm mostly using unimportant apps on it, but I also use it to check my main email, which is connected to my bank account...

"Just buy a new one" doesn't count

[Forskaren]

My general experience with Android devices are that they come with outdated software from day one. For some time you may get updates much later than from Google, if you are lucky. In many cases not at all. Perhaps you can replace the operating system with some modern Linux or something similar?

If you buy a brand new iPad I guess you may have updated software for 3-5 years. Difficult to predict what Apple does and when support will be dropped.

If you buy a new tablet with full windows 10, I think you may get updates for 5-10 years, maybe even more. At some point in the distant future, Microsoft will drop support for some of the hardware and stop updates.

[Campitor]

@ Sarouel

Most of the work to secure an old tablet requires installing a different OS - like Linux. There is no guarantee that your tablet will have the resources to handle the newer OS and you just fubar'd your tablet. It's been my experience, as a systems administrator, that most people who posts these types of questions will lack the expertise and patience to handle any software/hardware issues involved in making an older tablet/laptop work with a different OS or installing the original OS if they need to do a restore. I don't mean to sound condescending.

Perhaps I'm wrong and you have fiddled with computers and their configuration previously. I had to do an android tablet restore for a niece and it required opening the tablet to hit a reset switch, buried under some cables and connectors to get it to boot to the root menu successfully so I could play with the restore options. It was "black screened" previously but flashing a memory issue at boot up.

If you're just checking email why not use a smart phone if you have one? Or do a system restore on your tablet, set everything to vanilla, install only the apps required, and only use it for email (over a secure connection) and nothing else. And your tablet is only as secure as your downstream devices anyways: modem, router, email provider.

Ask yourself this. What opportunity costs are you willing to give up by keeping an unsafe device running versus paying @ 50 dollars for a new tablet?

[Sarouel]

Well, I definitely won't buy an apple or Windows device. And basically, don't all the devices that are sold at the moment suffer from the Spectre bug?
I thought about putting lineageos on my tablet, but my device is not supported.
With a normal Linux I wouldn't be able to use my apps, so also a no-no here. (If foremost I find the drivers somewhere, which I rather doubt...)
Same with the smartphone, I don't have one, exactly for security reasons, and if I had, it would also suffer from Spectre.

And if I understood it right, Spectre isn't going away that soon, right?

[Optimal_Solution]

Many Android devices are susceptible to Spectre. Unfortunately, many will never be patched because the manufacturers don't seem to prioritize updates of this nature.

Your options, in decreasing order of security:
- Buy a device with hardware that is not susceptible. This may be difficult until the processor manufacturers fix their products.
- Apply official patches to prevent the exploits. This may incur a performance penalty. Old devices probably won't ever have official patches.
- Install an aftermarket OS that patches the problem. This assumes that your device can accept an aftermarket OS, someone has compiled the OS for your device type, and you have the technical fortitude to complete the process.
- Limit your exposure by not running untrusted code. Only install applications from trusted sources written by trusted vendors. You will run untrusted JavaScript if you use a web browser. Disable JavaScript in your browser or use a browser that is patched to prevent exploitation. The desktop versions of Chrome, Firefox, and IE Edge have been duly patched. I'm not sure about mobile versions. Note that this option equates to being really careful and hoping that nothing bad happens. In other words, expect someone to eventually hack your device.

[bryan]

If anything, buy something with guaranteed timely software updates. Then worst case if a huge vuln hits, like Meltdown, you will get a SW update that helps but hurts performance. Honestly, iPhone has been leading smartphones (and I would assume iPads) in terms of security.

As far as computers completely immune to these specific vulns.. look for in-order processors (e.g. Cortex-A53/A55).

Honestly, other than the javascript vector, this isn't as bad as typical vulns you would see (e.g. flaws in drivers). Look for browser updates which may bite the bullet and add mitigations.