Avid have issued the following note about the Spectre and Meltdown security patches:

Avid have issued the following note about the Spectre and Meltdown security patches, which can be found at this link.

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/Troubleshooting/en239659/

January 10th, 2018 update:

Avid is working to qualify the latest OS versions of the Meltdown and Spectre security patches on all Avid products that we are actively supporting in the field. Security patches will be deemed qualified by Avid when testing confirms that the patches do not cause product features and functionality to become inoperable. This report contains our initial recommendations. At this time the available Meltdown and Spectre security patches include the following:

• Windows OS security updates and BIOS updates
• Mac OS X security updates

Avid has tested the available OS and BIOS updates and there is no loss in functionality after applying the updates. However we do see performance degradations after the patches are applied. We need to perform additional testing in order to characterize these performance degradations more precisely. We anticipate additional patches including BIOS updates and will continue to monitor their availability. This will include patches for Linux RedHat.

Note that while we recommend that you wait until patches are qualified, customers may decide to take the latest OS Updates they may be eligible to receive before Avid’s test period is complete. There may be times when this is advisable. For example, if a threat appears quickly and the site must protect its production environment. If the Update results in an issue in your production environment Avid will make reasonable efforts to assist you in remedying the problem under the terms of your current support agreement.

More details can be found from following links:

Security guidelines and Best Practices (see MS SecBulletin doc):
http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/Troubleshooting/en239659