In <20000722092648.A2461@foo.birdnet.se> Peter Stuge (stuge@cdy.org) wrote:
> Hi all!
> With this mail I'm going to try to accomplish a good thing(tm) - hopefully
> I'll succeed. :)
> In this mainly-IDE-thread there have been at least two facts stated (or
> discussed) and I've got some comments on them. (Woohoo!)
> 1. It is possible to write software that will damage hardware.
[Explanation how wrong firmware uploading process can screw you hardware skipped]
This is all right. But you can SIGN firmware blob and hardware will just
refuse to accept update with bad sign. How much it cost ? I have SmartCard
from Oberthur here where such protection is implemented. This card cost less
then 3$. Complete with CPU, memory, built-in DES (used for signature checking
in TripleDES mode) and so on. Since IDE/ATAPI drive (or you modem) ALREADY have
CPU, memory it'll add perhaps few CENTS to cost and will give you almost 100%
protection. Do we really need to tolerate hardware with ability to destroy it
with few simple commands just to save few CENTS per computer ?
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Jul 23 2000 - 21:00:19 EST