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No, TPMs and HSMs are fundamentally nothing more than secure hardware dedicated to storing private keys in a way that makes accessing the plaintext incredibly h
by UltraSane 8mo ago
No, TPMs and HSMs are fundamentally nothing more than secure hardware dedicated to storing private keys in a way that makes accessing the plaintext incredibly hard. All of modern computer security is based on them.
- pabs3 8mo ago... and usually deployed in a user-hostile manner.
- UltraSane 8mo agoAny evidence of this? Computer security was a complete disaster before hardware roots of trust became standard.
- NewJazz 8mo agoBoth things can be true.
- UltraSane 8mo agoThe knee-jerk hysterical reaction to any talk of hardware roots of trust on Hacker News is getting tiresome and I expect better given the reputation of the site. It actually reminds me of old slashdot.
- pabs3 8mo agoThe software running on such devices is usually proprietary and never installed by the user. That is user-hostile.
- UltraSane 8mo agoWhat software?
- pabs3 8mo agoThe firmware implementing TPM functionality, which definitely exists in at least some cases: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_Platform_Module#Field_upgrade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_Platform_Module#Field_... For ASIC-only devices, the keys are burned-in, which is user-hostile too.
- UltraSane 8mo agoIs the firmware in my NIC user-hostile?
- yencabulator 8mo agoThe firmware in one of my NICs for sure is. The vendor says they're not bothering to fix it, and nobody else is able to. https://www.blackduck.com/blog/cyrc-discovers-asus-tplink-wlan-vulnerabilities.html https://www.blackduck.com/blog/cyrc-discovers-asus-tplink-wl...
- hulitu 8mo ago> Computer security was a complete disaster It is still a complete disaster. Nobody needs the password to your bootloader when it can access all your data through your web browser.
- UltraSane 8mo agoThat isn't possible.