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The TPM just sores keys. Intel's "Active Management Technology" (the OS in vPro) is a serious problem. Igor Skochinsky's talk[1] about this is very troubling.

by pdkl95 11y ago

The TPM just sores keys. Intel's "Active Management Technology" (the OS in vPro) is a serious problem. Igor Skochinsky's talk[1] about this is very troubling. The final piece of the puzzle is the new "Software Guard Extensions" in Intel's latest CPUs. This is clearly designed to protect SMM[2]. It is going to be a lot harder to "root" this stuff when the RAM is encrypted. [1] http://www.slideshare.net/codeblue_jp/igor-skochinsky-enpub http://www.slideshare.net/codeblue_jp/igor-skochinsky-enpub https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2_-VXz9E-w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2_-VXz9E-w [2]...and DRM in general. See this diagram of GlobalPlatform's "Trusted Execution Environment"; in particular, note how the "Rich OS" (windows, linux, etc) is allowed to run outside the chain of trust, with the DRM being protected by hardware. http://i.imgur.com/rjbzWyB.jpg http://i.imgur.com/rjbzWyB.jpg

pjmlp 11y ago
Some of the new extensions are also intended as yet another band aid against C style memory corruption.
- pdkl95 11y ago
  You only need a memory manager for pointer protection. Intel states their intent for SGX on their website[1]. Some of the more important goals are: 1. Allow application developers to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access or modification by rogue software running at higher privilege levels. ... 5. Enable the development of trusted applications [...] 6, Enable software vendors to deliver trusted applications and updates [...] ... 8. Enable applications to define secure regions of code and data that maintain confidentiality even when an attacker has physical control of the platform and can conduct direct attacks on memory. This isn't about buffer overflows. You don't need to create a system where software vendors can create regions of memory that are protected against a logic analyser or cold boot attack to fix C style pointer bugs. You do need this capability if you want to hide things from the owner of the computer. It's not like they are hiding anything - "trusted applications" has been a dog whistle for DRM at least since "Palladium" (later called "Next-Generation Secure Computing Base"), part of Microsoft's "Trustworthy Computing" plans ~15 years ago. [1] https://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2013/09/26/protecting-application-secrets-with-intel-sgx https://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2013/09/26/protecting...
  - pc2g4d 11y ago
    Aren't there also legitimate use cases for these things? E.g. a password manager loading itself into a confidential memory region to prevent infiltration?
    - josteink 11y ago
      That may be, bit I'm absolutely confident it is perfect for malware and spyware too.

by pdkl95 11y ago

pjmlp 11y ago

Some of the new extensions are also intended as yet another band aid against C style memory corruption.

pdkl95 11y ago
You only need a memory manager for pointer protection. Intel states their intent for SGX on their website[1]. Some of the more important goals are: 1. Allow application developers to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access or modification by rogue software running at higher privilege levels. ... 5. Enable the development of trusted applications [...] 6, Enable software vendors to deliver trusted applications and updates [...] ... 8. Enable applications to define secure regions of code and data that maintain confidentiality even when an attacker has physical control of the platform and can conduct direct attacks on memory. This isn't about buffer overflows. You don't need to create a system where software vendors can create regions of memory that are protected against a logic analyser or cold boot attack to fix C style pointer bugs. You do need this capability if you want to hide things from the owner of the computer. It's not like they are hiding anything - "trusted applications" has been a dog whistle for DRM at least since "Palladium" (later called "Next-Generation Secure Computing Base"), part of Microsoft's "Trustworthy Computing" plans ~15 years ago. [1] https://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2013/09/26/protecting-application-secrets-with-intel-sgx https://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2013/09/26/protecting...
- pc2g4d 11y ago
  Aren't there also legitimate use cases for these things? E.g. a password manager loading itself into a confidential memory region to prevent infiltration?
  - josteink 11y ago
    That may be, bit I'm absolutely confident it is perfect for malware and spyware too.