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Right - people who are upset that their motherboard can just drop arbitrary executables into their OS ZOMG would do well to consider the fact that their motherb
by jameshart 3y ago
Right - people who are upset that their motherboard can just drop arbitrary executables into their OS ZOMG would do well to consider the fact that their motherboard is literally handling executing their OS and managing all input and output.
The issue here is not motherboard can execute arbitrary code. Motherboards are trusted hardware. You pass all your keystrokes, network traffic and memory transfers over it.
The issue is motherboard uses its trusted status to run software that performs raw HTTP downloads for firmware. Which is probably bad but might alternatively just be futureproofing to avoid having to deal with expiring certs.
- tinus_hn 3y agoDon’t attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
- Forbo 3y agoWhen it comes to corporations, don't attribute to stupidity that which can be adequately explained by greed. This could easily be avoided by having proper security engineering, but that costs money! They're only about a decade late to the whole post-Snowden "maybe we shouldn't trust unverified code delivered over interceptable cleartext channels" explosion.
- ikekkdcjkfke 3y agoThis motherboard security stuff should get Linus tech tips level attention and absolutely roast them to the point of a reform
- dustfinger 3y agoThat is a cute quote, but people still need to be held accountable for compromising the ability of millions of devices to update firmware securely. Stupidity or malice, the end result is the same. Having said that, hopefully someone will investigate whether or not there was ill intent.
- naruhodo 3y agoAny sufficiently advanced malice is indistinguishable from incompetence.
- NohatCoder 3y agoCertificates do not have to expire. This is all firmware handling 101, you put a public key in the software update function, and the updater checks any alleged update against that key, no dates involved.
- chasil 3y agoActually, the OpenBSD people came up with "signify" which handles this more elegantly. FTP is still advertised for download of this OS, but any tampering or otherwise corrupted files will not pass a signature test when signify is invoked. The keys are rotated for every release, the next expected key is always included in the current OpenBSD release. This system would be safe to fetch sensitive content over cleartext http. EDIT: Here is a paper on signify: https://www.openbsd.org/papers/bsdcan-signify.html https://www.openbsd.org/papers/bsdcan-signify.html
- NohatCoder 3y agoNeat, but only really relevant for rolling updates. This feature is a one-shot installer.
- ilyt 3y agoDebian does that since forever. Release file also contains Date: Wed, 31 May 2023 14:13:10 UTC Valid-Until: Wed, 07 Jun 2023 14:13:10 UTC which allows spotting any tries of "downgrading" repository to previous version with potentially insecure packages Of course, you still have to get current time somehow but I guess once RTC is set the device can assume the changes in time won't be huge and just use any kind of https source for that.
- asveikau 3y agoBut certificates expire for a reason, don't they? The idea is that with enough time, the key could be cracked.
- cerved 3y agoThe reason is money. Sweet, delicious money
- user6723 3y agoIndeed they would be well to but they won't be considering shit beyond a room temp IQ they just wanna play their gaymz