Apparently your CPU could be compromised and you'd never know

Community Tech Policy & News
1

So apparently there are inherent vulnerablilities in Intel's chips that can allow compromise to encryption etc without being detected.

Do you think the same is true for AMD chips, or just Intel?

http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/09/researchers-can-slip-an-undetectable-trojan-into-intels-ivy-bridge-cpus/

2

It is a bit like this:

http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/184874/is-ken-thompsons-compiler-hack-still-a-threat

But. This will really cook your noodle:

http://spritesmods.com/?art=hddhack&page=2 

:)

3

This sort of stuff is going to seriously damage US tech sector and many others, hell given the NSA stuff would you want to buy US weapon systems to defend your country, use US data services, have us companies involved in any defense or government projects? Basically any sensitive government related or commercial activity cant have ANY US COMPANY involved in it, anywhere, it is too risky. What with corporate espionage.

4

I've never seen a smiley face used to react to news that your HDD could be completely unreliable. lol

5

So I read through the second article and I'm curious about something. Since he was technically able to get Linux running on the controllers fro the HDD, can Linux then see the HDD as storage for itself? If so, couldn't you just walk around with an external HDD with Linux installed and, essentially, a USB powered computer?

Just a thought.

6

The article essentially says that CPU's could artificially lower the entropy to make keys which are generated by the CPU random number generator crackable. Bad news: It would work and it's hard to impossible to detect. Good news: linux uses it as ONE possible entropy source which gets mixed with all other entropy sources so it's not a problem at all.