Unfixable hole found in Intel ROM

[Imixmuan]

As stated so many times before by so many others, this is why some of us still use PowerPC in 2020.

'Unfixable' hole in Intel ROM exposes all but latest chips to attack, researchers say

A security firm says the hole impacts generations of Intel chipsets.

www.cnet.com

I wonder if this "unfixable hole" in the boot ROM is actually a deliberate backdoor. Wouldn't put it past Intel, or the NSA. I definitely see an ARM based Pinebook Pro in my near future.

 

[z970]

I wonder if this "unfixable hole" in the boot ROM is actually a deliberate backdoor. Wouldn't put it past Intel, or the NSA. I definitely see an ARM based Pinebook Pro in my near future.

I'm there with you.

 

[defjam]

IMO the larger risk is using an outdated and unsupported operating system (OS X). While there are users who use something other than OS X on PPC Macintoshes they're in the minority.

 

[2984839]

IMO the larger risk is using an outdated and unsupported operating system (OS X). While there are users who use something other than OS X on PPC Macintoshes they're in the minority.

That certainly is risky and I have no doubt that most use OS X, but those people are probably not using them for security benefits. And all of us in this thread so far actually do use something other than OS X.

 

[velocityg4]

IMO the larger risk is using an outdated and unsupported operating system (OS X). While there are users who use something other than OS X on PPC Macintoshes they're in the minority.

While technically the OS X for PowerPC is less secure. Since it no longer receives patches. What malware maker is ever going to waste time making PowerPC malware when there is so little chance of it reaching a target.

Heck that would make my IIcx even more secure. What are the odds of finding any malware compiled for a 68K CPU much less System 6.

 

[defjam]

That certainly is risky and I have no doubt that most use OS X, but those people are probably not using them for security benefits. And all of us in this thread so far actually do use something other than OS X.

That's not saying much given there were two posts prior to mine.
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While technically the OS X for PowerPC is less secure. Since it no longer receives patches. What malware maker is ever going to waste time making PowerPC malware when there is so little chance of it reaching a target.

Heck that would make my IIcx even more secure. What are the odds of finding any malware compiled for a 68K CPU much less System 6.

I would say the risk of unpatched OS vulnerabilities is a larger concern compared to this vulnerability. To exploit this vulnerability one needs physical access to the system or having already compromised the OS through another vulnerability.

IMO this is one half dozen or the other.

 

[2984839]

While technically the OS X for PowerPC is less secure. Since it no longer receives patches. What malware maker is ever going to waste time making PowerPC malware when there is so little chance of it reaching a target.

Heck that would make my IIcx even more secure. What are the odds of finding any malware compiled for a 68K CPU much less System 6.

Most security holes in ancient operating systems are pretty easy to exploit regardless of architecture; I would not rely on PPC's relative obscurity to provide any benefit.

 

[Amethyst1]

I definitely see an ARM based Pinebook Pro in my near future.

Is this one guaranteed to be devoid of backdoors?

 

[sparty411]

As stated so many times before by so many others, this is why some of us still use PowerPC in 2020.

'Unfixable' hole in Intel ROM exposes all but latest chips to attack, researchers say

A security firm says the hole impacts generations of Intel chipsets.

www.cnet.com

I wonder if this "unfixable hole" in the boot ROM is actually a deliberate backdoor. Wouldn't put it past Intel, or the NSA. I definitely see an ARM based Pinebook Pro in my near future.

Does the Pinebook pro have an unlocked bootloader?

 

[z970]

Is this one guaranteed to be devoid of backdoors?

If the Rockchip RK3399 is, then that's a yes. Same applies to their RockPro64, which is built on the same chip.

Regardless of country origin, it looks like a pretty open SoC. Therefore, I'd say the chances of that are very, very low - if not nonexistent.

RK3399 - Rockchip open source Document

opensource.rock-chips.com

RK3399 - Rockchip Wiki

rockchip.wikidot.com

http://www.rockchip.fr/RK3399%20datasheet%20V1.8.pdf

Rockchip - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[TheShortTimer]

While technically the OS X for PowerPC is less secure. Since it no longer receives patches. What malware maker is ever going to waste time making PowerPC malware when there is so little chance of it reaching a target.

Crucially they can't hack the computer if it's air-gapped. Good luck to any malware maker determined enough to break into my home whilst I'm asleep or after I've gone out in order to plant it on my PPC Macs.

As I've mentioned before, there is always the practical option to place any computer that is running an unsupported operating system behind a Smoothwall box. Its open source and has modest hardware requirements: two NICs and a Pentium CPU with 128MB of RAM will get you going. I had it chugging away with just 32MB! Once everything is set up, you can leave it to work headless. Solutions such as these seem to get overlooked amidst all the scaremongering.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

As stated so many times before by so many others, this is why some of us still use PowerPC in 2020.

'Unfixable' hole in Intel ROM exposes all but latest chips to attack, researchers say

A security firm says the hole impacts generations of Intel chipsets.

www.cnet.com

I wonder if this "unfixable hole" in the boot ROM is actually a deliberate backdoor. Wouldn't put it past Intel, or the NSA. I definitely see an ARM based Pinebook Pro in my near future.

I guaran-damn-tee there are plenty of similar bugs in PowerPC - it's just that nobody bothers to research them.

And no, it isn't a deliberate backdoor - don't be a conspiracy theorist. (I know some of the people that design Intel CPUs, and some of the people that research these bugs - all agree this is purely accidental oversight.)