On 05/31/2012 01:57 PM, Jon Ciesla wrote:
On Thu, May 31, 2012 at 12:52 PM, Gerry Reno
<greno(a)verizon.net> wrote:
> On 05/31/2012 01:48 PM, Jon Ciesla wrote:
>> On Thu, May 31, 2012 at 12:42 PM, Gerry Reno <greno(a)verizon.net> wrote:
>>> On 05/31/2012 01:34 PM, Jon Ciesla wrote:
>>>> On Thu, May 31, 2012 at 12:22 PM, Gerry Reno <greno(a)verizon.net>
wrote:
>>>>> On 05/31/2012 01:19 PM, Jon Ciesla wrote:
>>>>>> On Thu, May 31, 2012 at 12:16 PM, Gerry Reno
<greno(a)verizon.net> wrote:
>>>>>>> On 05/31/2012 01:10 PM, Gregory Maxwell wrote:
>>>>>>>> On Thu, May 31, 2012 at 1:07 PM, Gerry Reno
<greno(a)verizon.net> wrote:
>>>>>>>>> Could be any of a thousand ways to implement this.
>>>>>>>>> Maybe it checks the BIOS to determine whether some
SecureBoot flag is set.
>>>>>>>> While it pains me to argue with someone on my side—
you're incorrect.
>>>>>>>> The compromised system would just intercept and emulate
or patch out that test.
>>>>>>> Then what's missing here is a way for booted OS's to
test themselves for integrity.
>>>>>> Maybe some sort of cryptographic signature stored in the
hardware?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> <ducks>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -J
>>>>>>
>>>>>> </sarcasm>
>>>>>>
>>>>> Just not dictated by one monopoly.
>>>> Ideally, no. But you see the problem. I'm divided on the solution
>>>> myself, but I've yet to see one I feel better about.
>>>>
>>>> -J
>>>>
>>>>
>>> This game of cat and mouse with the blackhats is not going to end until we
have some type of read-only partitions where
>>> known good code resides.
>> We have that, ISO9660. Known good == known good to whom?
>>
>>
> Nah, can't be iso.
>
> Has to be HDD partitions whose ro/rw state is controlled by hardware.
Which brings us back to the issue of how the hardware knows what to
trust for that ro/rw state.
The hardware is under control of the user.
At some point the user has to know what they consider trusted.
During installation from a known good installation source: DVD, network, whatever, the
user enables the install to write
on the partition by actively pressing a hardware button that allows the write. After the
installation is finished the
user switches it back to read-only through pressing the hardware button.
The user now has a known good read-only installation to boot from.
.