4 ms·
Previous discussion here that gives more background about the topic: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13781408 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1378140
by GuiA 9y ago
Previous discussion here that gives more background about the topic:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13781408 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13781408
tl;dr: the PSP is a full computer that lives between the instructions that get sent to your CPU and what your CPU actually executes. It's obviously a huge security problem, because if a backdoor in the PSP gets exploited, you cannot trust your computer in any way, and there is no way for you to verify whether it is being exploited or not. AMD said they might open source it, but even that wouldn't do much to establish trust.
- calafrax 9y agoright, and releasing the source code is giving a map to criminals to allow them to hack it. The "no security through obscurity" theory is not entirely true in the real world. When you push up the cost (money and skill) of a hack then hackers will attack weaker components and so the likelihood of a hack is smaller. This code is highly secure and would require an enormous amount of specialist knowledge, equipment, and time to extract, analyze and exploit. The effort involved rules out rational profit motivated individuals because the costs are too high and there are plentiful opportunities for lower cost exploits. No company releases the source for their DRM code except to legitimately interested parties in controlled circumstances and that is the correct policy from a security perspective.