Re: Butting in.. (Was: scsi-destroyer.c to come...)

Karen Shaeffer (shaeffer@best.com)
Sat, 22 Jul 2000 13:29:51 -0700

On Sat, Jul 22, 2000 at 02:49:24PM -0400, Mike A. Harris wrote:
> On Sat, 22 Jul 2000, Khimenko Victor wrote:
>
> >This is all right. But you can SIGN firmware blob and hardware will just
> >refuse to accept update with bad sign. How much it cost ? I have SmartCard
> >from Oberthur here where such protection is implemented. This card cost less
> >then 3$. Complete with CPU, memory, built-in DES (used for signature checking
> >in TripleDES mode) and so on. Since IDE/ATAPI drive (or you modem) ALREADY have
> >CPU, memory it'll add perhaps few CENTS to cost and will give you almost 100%
> >protection. Do we really need to tolerate hardware with ability to destroy it
> >with few simple commands just to save few CENTS per computer ?
>
> That would definitely be better than what we have now, however I
> would still question the true security of it. DVD was cracked.
> Mike A. Harris Linux advocate

Well, this is part of the solution. But, the other part is quite simple and I
believe being widely implemented in current Flash chips. They contain boot
block sectors that are *never* reprogrammed. Even if you have your Flash
reprogrammed with trash, when you reboot, the system still comes up and has
the *NONREPROGRAMMABLE* boot sector code--that actually facilitates the
reprogramming of the programmable memory sectors on the chip. It's that
simple. And all reprogrammable PROM, Flash, and SMROM *can* be designed to
implement this.

So all this *noise* about the kernel needing major changes is simply not
recognizing the reality that the hardware is defective. Newer systems are
now addressing these *hardware* flaws. The kernel need not take
responsibility for the inadequacy of the hardware industry's legacy systems.
The capabilities patch is about all that makes sense here.

c,

-- 
 Karen Shaeffer
 Neuralscape; Santa Cruz, Ca. 95060
 shaeffer@neuralscape.com  http://www.neuralscape.com


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