Re: disabling Intel PSN

H. Peter Anvin (hpa@transmeta.com)
Fri, 17 Dec 1999 12:46:13 -0800

Alan Cox wrote:
>
> > That's not true. It only decreases security if you make the manual
> > part of the passphrase correspondingly shorter. As an *addition*, it
> > increases security. As a *replacement*, it decreases security.
>
> Dangerous assumption. You now have known key plaintext.

Generating a kry from a passphrase should be *always* be done via
cryptographic hash -- otherwise you have a hole big enough to drive a
truck through your cryptosystems. Human-entered passphrases are *never*
random.

> > Although I personally disagree with (c), if a company has a product I
> > want I'd rather see them make it available on Linux with a dumb
> > license rather than not offer it at all.
>
> Fortunately if you pick the right CPU's (eg the winchip) you can spoof
> the CPUID 8)

I didn't say it made sense :)

-=hpa

-- 
<hpa@transmeta.com> at work, <hpa@zytor.com> in private!
"Unix gives you enough rope to shoot yourself in the foot."


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