[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: Firmware - what are we going to do about it?



On Tue, Apr 19, 2022 at 04:30:44PM +0100, Tim Woodall wrote:
> > On Tue, Apr 19, 2022 at 02:38:03PM +0200, Jonas Smedegaard wrote:
> > > When I install systems, I consider non-free blobs more risky than other
> > > code.
> > Do you consider loadable non-free blobs more risky than their older
> > versions soldered onto the hardware?
> > 
> Definitely "more risky" possibly not "less secure"
> 
> One of my biggest frustrations is that it's impossible to selectively
> apply "security patches" and companies are wont to "smuggle" in feature
> changes along with security fixes.
[...]
> No, but I do see a benefit in them not being applied automatically as
> part of a standard update. And for something like a firmware upgrade for
> a network card, I might only want to install it if there was a security
> issue that might actually impact me or I was having a problem. Otherwise
> it's hard to imagine a scenario where a firmware upgrade can make things
> better but it's easy to imagine it making things much worse.
Then what about hardware that doesn't have soldered firmware, only
loadable one? Would you not use it at all?

> apt-get upgrade will tell you that linux-image-amd64 has a newer version
> but it then takes apt-get dist-upgrade to commit to that update.
(this is not really relevant, not exactly true and not really a feature)

> (kernels are a bit of a funny case because some kernel updates happen
> under apt-get upgrade)
(most package updates happen under apt-get upgrade)

> I'd like to see something similar for (non-free) firmeware where users
> can choose to default upgrade with their regular updates or can hold
> back updates.
Considering what I wrote above, this isn't really something we usually do.

-- 
WBR, wRAR

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: PGP signature


Reply to: