Byron Stanoszek (gandalf@winds.org) wrote:
: However, the one point I failed to see is what the manufacturer *allows* you
: to do with the component. Now these methods are either undocumented, or the
: manufacturer provides binary-only programs to do these tasks. But, the biggest
: type of damage you can do to your hardware to render it instantly unusable is
: to reflash the firmware on the device with erroneous data.
Yeah :-( In the good old days there was a physical jumper you had to move
before flash'ing could take place. My video card, for example, has a jumper
which is very awkward to access. However, in the cause of luser-friendliness
(oh no, never open the machine, never change a jumper) the manufacturers
have moved away from this physical protection to protection-by-obscurity
(which as we all know is effectively zero protection at all).
Because, as you say, iopl can be used to access hardware directly, it becomes
a lot harder to protect your hardware, but this shouldn't stop us trying.
--
Stephen Harris
sweh@spuddy.mew.co.uk http://www.spuddy.org/
The truth is the truth, and opinion just opinion. But what is what?
My employer pays to ignore my opinions; you get to do it for free.
* Meeeeow ! Call Spud the Cat on > 01708 442043 < for free Usenet access *
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