Re: [OT] Trusted hardware

[Udo A. Steinberg]

On Mon, 10 Oct 2005 15:03:33 -0400 Jonathan S. Shapiro (JSS) wrote:

JSS> Curiously enough, I think there is more reason for confidence in the
JSS> secure boot hardware than the processor, for three reasons:
JSS> 
JSS> 1. The boot hardware is actually pretty simple.

No matter how simple the boot hardware is, you still have to rely on the
boot software. Grub code wasn't the most beautiful piece of software last
time I looked and most BIOS writers have proven to be notoriously bad at
configuring the platform. ACPI itself is a huge piece of HW/SW interaction
with ample opportunity to shoot yourself in the foot. Not to mention SMM,
which is completely transparent to any software, except the BIOS.

JSS> 2. We have seen long-term success by the CA's in guarding the root keys

I agree with that one.

JSS> 3. We have known for years about supervisor-mode holes in all of the
JSS>    current commodity processors.

Can you please clarify what you mean by "supervisor-mode hole" and/or give
some examples of such processor errata?

-Udo.

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