Re: Sysadmins

[Jonathan S. Shapiro]

On Sat, 2005-11-05 at 04:33 +0100, address@hidden wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> > Your comment that the administrator controls the boot loader is true
> > today. It will probably continue to be true that the administrator can
> > *replace* the OS. Given coming changes in PC architecture, it will
> > probably *not* continue to be true that this can be done without
> > detection, and it will not necessarily be true that changing the OS
> > will allow successful inspection of data written by the previous OS.
> 
> And who will do this detection, other then the admin? Or do you mean
> Treacherous Computing, introducing another "trusted" entity even more
> out of your control?

What you call "treacherous computing" is in fact a value-neutral
technology. Freedom advocates have been so busy deriding DRM that they
have utterly failed to consider other, socially positive uses of this
technology.

> My point is that no matter how hard you try, you can't change the fact
> that ultimately the users need to trust the one controlling the machine.
> Nothing in your system design can really change this.

Yes, I have understood your point for several rounds of email now. The
problem is that your assertion is contrary to fact. You *have*, however,
convinced me that you do not understand secure boot and its implications
for system architectures that robustly defend their users from
espionage, including administrator espionage.


shap