FreeBSD 11.3 Beta 2 Brings Virtualization Updates, Exposes MD_CLEAR MDS Bit To Guests

The second weekly beta of FreeBSD 11.3 is now available for testing.

FreeBSD 11.3 should be released in July and offers up various bug fixes and other minor improvements compared to last year's 11.2 release. FreeBSD 12 remains the current stable series while new development is happening for FreeBSD 13.

With FreeBSD 11.3 Beta 2 there is an updated OpenSSL, minor updates to Bhyve and VirtIO virtualization components, an LLVM fix benefiting PowerPC 64-bit, exposing the Intel MD_CLEAR capability to guests that is used for Intel MDS/Zombieload mitigations, and various other fixes.

More details on FreeBSD 11.3 Beta 2 and download links can be found via the release announcement.

There's the possibility of a third beta next week before kicking off the release candidates while the release engineering team hopes to ship FreeBSD 11.3 on 9 July.