It is possible that this should simply be a Plug-in in WooCommerce, written in PhP.  Their plug-ins have their own formal structure, which is explained on the Net.  Maybe I should see the PhP syntax.  I would have to either write it myself, or give the logic to somebody to write.  So far I have not gotten feedback on using a compiled language, but I am checking a bit more.

Spectre and Meltdown explained: What they are, how they work, what's at risk
https://www.csoonline.com/article/3247868/spectre-and-meltdown-explained-what-they-are-how-they-work-whats-at-risk.html

Interesting, so with Intel you would recommend an i7 (recent generations) or i9, with AMD you have to check.  The high-end refurbs can be fairly modern, but this would be a reason to definitely avoid, e.g. fourth generation i5 and even many newer than that.

I was thinking about the really low level "control" malware, but this is different, the actual fixes to the fundamental problem really hurt the chips performance, newer chips are more likely to be designed robustly, at least for a year or two!

Thanks!

This site can help with chip performance comparison, but they should add the original release date, here is an example:
https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-9700KF-vs-AMD-Ryzen-7-3800X/m710154vs4047

ADDED: Oh, they give the date, the quarter released.

Steven

Given all of the side channel attack issues, I'd avoid referbs these days

-Stoic Joker (November 20, 2019, 06:57 AM)

Presumably this some real low-level OS or firmware malware?  Hard to detect.

Do we have any reports of this happening in the major refurb channels.