As nobody else has mentioned it (unless i missed it) you can install the package spectre-meltdown-checker (in debian based distros) from stretch backports and it will give you some indication of your vulnerability status, The 4.9.0.6 kernel (4.9.82) that I am using appears to have all the patches in place although I don't know how safe that would make the system or whether you would still need a bios fix but it is a little reassuring to know the kernel updates have helped (apparently).
My results...
Hardware check
* Hardware support (CPU microcode) for mitigation techniques
* Indirect Branch Restricted Speculation (IBRS)
* SPEC_CTRL MSR is available: NO
* CPU indicates IBRS capability: NO
* Indirect Branch Prediction Barrier (IBPB)
* PRED_CMD MSR is available: NO
* CPU indicates IBPB capability: NO
* Single Thread Indirect Branch Predictors (STIBP)
* SPEC_CTRL MSR is available: NO
* CPU indicates STIBP capability: NO
* Enhanced IBRS (IBRS_ALL)
* CPU indicates ARCH_CAPABILITIES MSR availability: NO
* ARCH_CAPABILITIES MSR advertises IBRS_ALL capability: NO
* CPU explicitly indicates not being vulnerable to Meltdown (RDCL_NO): NO
* CPU microcode is known to cause stability problems: NO (model 23 stepping 10 ucode 0xa0b)
* CPU vulnerability to the three speculative execution attacks variants
* Vulnerable to Variant 1: YES
* Vulnerable to Variant 2: NO
* Vulnerable to Variant 3: YES
CVE-2017-5753 [bounds check bypass] aka 'Spectre Variant 1'
* Mitigated according to the /sys interface: YES (kernel confirms that the mitigation is active)
* Kernel has array_index_mask_nospec: YES (1 occurence(s) found of 64 bits array_index_mask_nospec())
* Kernel has the Red Hat/Ubuntu patch: NO
> STATUS: NOT VULNERABLE (Mitigation: __user pointer sanitization)
CVE-2017-5715 [branch target injection] aka 'Spectre Variant 2'
* Mitigated according to the /sys interface: YES (kernel confirms that the mitigation is active)
* Mitigation 1
* Kernel is compiled with IBRS/IBPB support: NO
* Currently enabled features
* IBRS enabled for Kernel space: NO
* IBRS enabled for User space: NO
* IBPB enabled: NO
* Mitigation 2
* Kernel compiled with retpoline option: YES
* Kernel compiled with a retpoline-aware compiler: YES (kernel reports full retpoline compilation)
> STATUS: NOT VULNERABLE (your CPU vendor reported your CPU model as not vulnerable)
CVE-2017-5754 [rogue data cache load] aka 'Meltdown' aka 'Variant 3'
* Mitigated according to the /sys interface: YES (kernel confirms that the mitigation is active)
* Kernel supports Page Table Isolation (PTI): YES
* PTI enabled and active: YES
* Running as a Xen PV DomU: NO
> STATUS: NOT VULNERABLE (Mitigation: PTI)
A false sense of security is worse than no security at all, see --disclaimer
Spectre and Meltdown mitigation detection tool v0.35
Checking for vulnerabilities on current system
Kernel is Linux 4.14.0-3-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.14.17-1 (2018-02-14) x86_64
CPU is Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-5300U CPU @ 2.30GHz
Hardware check
* Hardware support (CPU microcode) for mitigation techniques
* Indirect Branch Restricted Speculation (IBRS)
* SPEC_CTRL MSR is available: YES
* CPU indicates IBRS capability: YES (SPEC_CTRL feature bit)
* Indirect Branch Prediction Barrier (IBPB)
* PRED_CMD MSR is available: YES
* CPU indicates IBPB capability: YES (SPEC_CTRL feature bit)
* Single Thread Indirect Branch Predictors (STIBP)
* SPEC_CTRL MSR is available: YES
* CPU indicates STIBP capability: YES
* Enhanced IBRS (IBRS_ALL)
* CPU indicates ARCH_CAPABILITIES MSR availability: NO
* ARCH_CAPABILITIES MSR advertises IBRS_ALL capability: NO
* CPU explicitly indicates not being vulnerable to Meltdown (RDCL_NO): NO
* CPU microcode is known to cause stability problems: NO (model 61 stepping 4 ucode 0x2a)
* CPU vulnerability to the three speculative execution attacks variants
* Vulnerable to Variant 1: YES
* Vulnerable to Variant 2: YES
* Vulnerable to Variant 3: YES
CVE-2017-5753 [bounds check bypass] aka 'Spectre Variant 1'
* Mitigated according to the /sys interface: NO (kernel confirms your system is vulnerable)
* Kernel has array_index_mask_nospec: NO
* Kernel has the Red Hat/Ubuntu patch: NO
* Checking count of LFENCE instructions following a jump in kernel... NO (only 2 jump-then-lfence instructions found, should be >= 30 (heuristic))
> STATUS: VULNERABLE (Kernel source needs to be patched to mitigate the vulnerability)
CVE-2017-5715 [branch target injection] aka 'Spectre Variant 2'
* Mitigated according to the /sys interface: YES (kernel confirms that the mitigation is active)
* Mitigation 1
* Kernel is compiled with IBRS/IBPB support: NO
* Currently enabled features
* IBRS enabled for Kernel space: NO
* IBRS enabled for User space: NO
* IBPB enabled: NO
* Mitigation 2
* Kernel compiled with retpoline option: YES
* Kernel compiled with a retpoline-aware compiler: YES (kernel reports full retpoline compilation)
> STATUS: NOT VULNERABLE (Mitigation: Full generic retpoline)
CVE-2017-5754 [rogue data cache load] aka 'Meltdown' aka 'Variant 3'
* Mitigated according to the /sys interface: YES (kernel confirms that the mitigation is active)
* Kernel supports Page Table Isolation (PTI): YES
* PTI enabled and active: YES
* Running as a Xen PV DomU: NO
> STATUS: NOT VULNERABLE (Mitigation: PTI)
A false sense of security is worse than no security at all, see --disclaimer