3 ms·

Any ideas about Ryzen CPU susceptibility to built-in backdoors ? https://blog.invisiblethings.org/papers/2015/x86_harmful.pdf https://blog.invisiblethings.org/

• throw0101a 6y ago
  Everything is susceptible to backdoors depending on your level of paranoia. You can have an open source architecture, like RISC-V, and yet the people at the fab can insert backdoors into the silicon. Building trusted hardware is an area of active research: * https://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/design/stopping-hardware-trojans-in-their-tracks https://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/design/stopping-har... Then you have to worry about trusting software. Even if you compile it from scratch, the compiler itself can be a threat (as outlined by Thompson1984): * https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/01/countering_trus.html https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/01/countering_tr... * PDF: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rdriley/487/papers/Thompson_1984_ReflectionsonTrustingTrust.pdf https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rdriley/487/papers/Thompson_1984_Ref...
  • BlueTemplar 6y ago
    Of course. To be more specific, I'm concerned about widespread compromise by NSA of computers in European companies with the goal of industrial espionage. (Like the way that Intel's Management Engine can potentially be this kind of threat.)
    • opencl 6y ago
      If you're concerned about Intel's ME, AMD's PSP is basically the same thing.