Re: Summary of the DebConf firmware discussion
On Sat, Aug 29, 2015 at 9:48 AM, Philipp Kern wrote:
> freeness are distinct for the CPU and auxiliary PUs.
I get the feeling that the practical consequences of non-free software
running on auxiliary PUs can be worse than CPUs:
May include signature checks to prevent new code from running. For
CPUs we usually have ways to disable those checks.
Reverse engineering is harder due to custom/unknown ISAs and lack of
free infrastructure surrounding the proprietary code.
For preinstalled code it is much more likely that one cannot do
updates nor find out how to update it. Obviously not an issue for
upload-on-boot firmware.
Unknown amounts of storage for persistant malware to live in after
exploiting the firmware.
Harder to detect or restrict misbehaviour when it happens.
--
bye,
pabs
https://wiki.debian.org/PaulWise
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