4 ms·

OT, sort of, but a while back I saw one of these... "Pi-like" boards that had two Ethernet ports. It also had significantly more horsepower. I'm wondering wha

OT, sort of, but a while back I saw one of these... "Pi-like" boards that had two Ethernet ports. It also had significantly more horsepower. I'm wondering what might be recommended choices at this point for someone looking for an inexpensive, wired MITM / Firewall platform. P.S. It would be great if it also had decent on-board wireless for e.g. making a portable hardware firewall device.

logicallee 10y ago
seriously? (seriously seriously)? It depends on if you're okay with the chinese having a backdoor, at the firmware level. (to the tune of '//gotroot!!' in the source code, and dropping to root.) if you're okay with it, you have a LOT more options than if you aren't. perhaps if we start having dedicated routers and networks for the backdoored insecure stuff they'll start realizing that at the end of the day they're being pretty fucking obvious. no comment on other governments stuff. if they're there, at least they aren't obvious.
- pasbesoin 10y ago
  You got voted down (not by me), but I guess that is something to consider -- if/as a particular device is not completely open.
- errantspark 10y ago
  I'm curious to see this for myself, do you have a source?
  - logicallee 10y ago
    https://www.google.com/search?q=As+for+the+backdoor+in+Orange+Pi https://www.google.com/search?q=As+for+the+backdoor+in+Orang... (honestly, if it were invisible I wouldn't care. it's just sloppy. I also think all governments should collude and there should be like world peace ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ - meanwhile they should fear for their people, and have to nominally follow constitutions. I guess I can keep dreaming though.)
    - Gibbon1 10y ago
      Not sure but I assume that the Octavo Systems OSD3358 uses the same parts as the BBB core processor/memory/misc. Which means at least you can load the same firmware as a BBB. Which leaves you with the same trust issues as a regular BBB. If that's not true then all bets are off. Me I'd be more worried about the WiFi module, thought stopping to think, if the WiFi module driver isn't open source that's a worry too.
      - kbaker 10y ago
        The WiFi module is also a TI chipset, so same trust issues as the AM3358. The wifi driver is open source, however with a binary blob for WiFi and Bluetooth firmware.
- bsder 10y ago
  I upvoted you in spite of your tone, because your statements are not undue. The AllWinner stuff is concerning because they weren't exactly transparent about things. However, the Octavo stuff looks like your bog-standard chips from BeagleBone/TI just all smashed onto the same substrate. You could decap the module and see if that's true.
  - logicallee 10y ago
    I don't know if the threading makes it less than obvious, but I was simply answering this question: >OT, sort of, but a while back I saw one of these... "Pi-like" boards that had two Ethernet ports. It also had significantly more horsepower. I'm wondering what might be recommended choices at this point for someone looking for an inexpensive, wired MITM / Firewall platform. There are a lot of very interesting, very cheap boards!
pwython 10y ago
You may be thinking of the ODROID-C2. http://www.hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php http://www.hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php
- pasbesoin 10y ago
  Thank you. That looks like one of the ones, perhaps the only one, that I recall. Gigabit Ethernet, even. Do wish the USB could be >= 3, but for $40, I'm not going to complain. Mali™-450 GPU (3 Pixel-processors + 2 Vertex shader processors) I'm thinking this implies a binary blob?
  - khedoros 10y ago
    This looks like the source for a Linux Mali-400/450 driver: http://malideveloper.arm.com/?modals=mali-400450-linux-kernel-device-driver http://malideveloper.arm.com/?modals=mali-400450-linux-kerne... I haven't really examined it, though. Maybe there's also a binary blob loaded into the GPU itself or something (the Raspberry Pi does that, for example). Hopefully they don't need to use a closed-source blob for the C2.
  - josh64 10y ago
    Check the kernels available too - often these pi-like boards only have 3.x version Android kernels available.
gaadd33 10y ago
There's this http://pcengines.ch/apu2.htm http://pcengines.ch/apu2.htm which runs FreeBSD quite well and has gigabit/etc plus the ability to add wireless
- Tharkun 10y ago
  Unfortunately its power usage is crazy bad. It draws about 7W when idle. Devices like the BeagleBone, Pi or even most consumer-grade wifi routers draw a fraction of that.

logicallee 10y ago

seriously? (seriously seriously)? It depends on if you're okay with the chinese having a backdoor, at the firmware level. (to the tune of '//gotroot!!' in the source code, and dropping to root.) if you're okay with it, you have a LOT more options than if you aren't. perhaps if we start having dedicated routers and networks for the backdoored insecure stuff they'll start realizing that at the end of the day they're being pretty fucking obvious. no comment on other governments stuff. if they're there, at least they aren't obvious.

pasbesoin 10y ago
You got voted down (not by me), but I guess that is something to consider -- if/as a particular device is not completely open.
errantspark 10y ago
I'm curious to see this for myself, do you have a source?
- logicallee 10y ago
  https://www.google.com/search?q=As+for+the+backdoor+in+Orange+Pi https://www.google.com/search?q=As+for+the+backdoor+in+Orang... (honestly, if it were invisible I wouldn't care. it's just sloppy. I also think all governments should collude and there should be like world peace ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ - meanwhile they should fear for their people, and have to nominally follow constitutions. I guess I can keep dreaming though.)
  - Gibbon1 10y ago
    Not sure but I assume that the Octavo Systems OSD3358 uses the same parts as the BBB core processor/memory/misc. Which means at least you can load the same firmware as a BBB. Which leaves you with the same trust issues as a regular BBB. If that's not true then all bets are off. Me I'd be more worried about the WiFi module, thought stopping to think, if the WiFi module driver isn't open source that's a worry too.
    - kbaker 10y ago
      The WiFi module is also a TI chipset, so same trust issues as the AM3358. The wifi driver is open source, however with a binary blob for WiFi and Bluetooth firmware.
bsder 10y ago
I upvoted you in spite of your tone, because your statements are not undue. The AllWinner stuff is concerning because they weren't exactly transparent about things. However, the Octavo stuff looks like your bog-standard chips from BeagleBone/TI just all smashed onto the same substrate. You could decap the module and see if that's true.
- logicallee 10y ago
  I don't know if the threading makes it less than obvious, but I was simply answering this question: >OT, sort of, but a while back I saw one of these... "Pi-like" boards that had two Ethernet ports. It also had significantly more horsepower. I'm wondering what might be recommended choices at this point for someone looking for an inexpensive, wired MITM / Firewall platform. There are a lot of very interesting, very cheap boards!

pwython 10y ago

You may be thinking of the ODROID-C2. http://www.hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php http://www.hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php

pasbesoin 10y ago
Thank you. That looks like one of the ones, perhaps the only one, that I recall. Gigabit Ethernet, even. Do wish the USB could be >= 3, but for $40, I'm not going to complain. Mali™-450 GPU (3 Pixel-processors + 2 Vertex shader processors) I'm thinking this implies a binary blob?
- khedoros 10y ago
  This looks like the source for a Linux Mali-400/450 driver: http://malideveloper.arm.com/?modals=mali-400450-linux-kernel-device-driver http://malideveloper.arm.com/?modals=mali-400450-linux-kerne... I haven't really examined it, though. Maybe there's also a binary blob loaded into the GPU itself or something (the Raspberry Pi does that, for example). Hopefully they don't need to use a closed-source blob for the C2.
- josh64 10y ago
  Check the kernels available too - often these pi-like boards only have 3.x version Android kernels available.

gaadd33 10y ago

There's this http://pcengines.ch/apu2.htm http://pcengines.ch/apu2.htm which runs FreeBSD quite well and has gigabit/etc plus the ability to add wireless

Tharkun 10y ago
Unfortunately its power usage is crazy bad. It draws about 7W when idle. Devices like the BeagleBone, Pi or even most consumer-grade wifi routers draw a fraction of that.