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I don't think the parent was talking about this specific type of attacks but other types of hardware backdoors. I think the answer to that is very obviously yes
by simias 8y ago
I don't think the parent was talking about this specific type of attacks but other types of hardware backdoors. I think the answer to that is very obviously yes, and given what we know about intelligence agencies I'm even willing to go as far as saying that it is likely (or at least, if you have reasons to be worried about Uncle Sam getting to your stuff you should consider it a very real possibility).
Modern ASICs are so complex that I'm sure that sneaking a tiny backdoor into the behemoth that's a modern CPU or embedded SoC would be almost trivial. They'd also have great plausible deniability in case they're found, if something like SPECTRE was an intentional backdoor how would you ever prove it for instance?
- wepple 8y ago> Modern ASICs are so complex that I'm sure that sneaking a tiny backdoor into the behemoth that's a modern CPU or embedded SoC would be almost trivial. I suspect putting in a backdoor would be difficult because they are complex. Wouldn’t it be far too easy for the backdoor to inadvertently cause reliability or performance issues? And the bug would have to be useful enough to warrant potentially destroying the semiconductor business of a nation, not just some difficult to trigger side channel.
- whatpad 8y agoNobody cares about your wild, uneducated speculation.
- wepple 8y agoWelcome to HN. You’ll find that kind of negative comment which doesn’t really add to the discussion isn’t valued here. It wasn’t wild nor uneducated; I have some experience with FPGAs and the challenges of complex circuit design - regardless, I was posing a question rather than stating fact. Do you disagree with what I suggested? Educate me, correct my speculation.
- dang 8y agoPlease be civil here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html