3 ms·
I work in IC design too, and you are correct that this would be nearly impossible for someone at a foundry to pull off. But it would not be hard at all for a m
by lisper 5y ago
I work in IC design too, and you are correct that this would be nearly impossible for someone at a foundry to pull off. But it would not be hard at all for a mole on the chip design team to do. And based on what I've seen I don't think it would be very hard for a state actor to get moles into most major chip design firms. Indeed, the measures required to protect against this would be scarier to me than the back doors.
It is even possible that chip designers insert back doors into their chips intentionally (no state-sponsored moles required) so they can covertly sell those capabilities to state actors as an additional revenue source. This might not even be illegal.
- mr_toad 5y ago> would not be hard at all for a mole on the chip design team to do But that would put a back door on every chip made from that design, and it would increase the odds of it being discovered.
- lisper 5y agoThat's true, but it would be equally true of a backdoor inserted at the foundry by the technique described in TFA. Also, it is possible to insert back doors into hardware in ways that would be very hard to spot even by people familiar with the design. I've seen automated design tools emit some pretty weird shit, and for all I know it might have been a back door. But it passed LEC and DRC so it shipped.
- rmbyrro 5y ago> This might not even be illegal. Shows we should not conflate right/wrong with legal/illegal. Some overlap, but certainly down from 100%.
- R0b0t1 5y agoIt probably is illegal, but only if there's damages, because that is usually how civil penalties work. In a way it makes sense: how do you know they did it if you have had no damage done? The illegality is the damages regardless of how they occurred, but potentially also breach of contract if you think to specify "no backdoors" in your contract.