On Sun, 15 Aug 2004, Major Variola (ret) wrote: > We worried about compromized OSes, BIOSes, read last week about > a PNG library bug that lets images run buffer exploits, now CPUs > can be backdoored: > > > >From Scheier's Crypto-gram: > > Here's an interesting hardware security vulnerability. Turns out that > it's possible to update the AMD K8 processor (Athlon64 or Opteron) > microcode. And, get this, there's no authentication check. So it's > possible that an attacker who has access to a machine can backdoor the > CPU. > <http://www.realworldtech.com/forums/index.cfm?action=detail&PostNum=252 > > 7&Thread=1&entryID=35446&roomID=11> or <http://tinyurl.com/43kod>
Old news. The ability to update CPU microcode has been around (publicly) since the Pentium Pro. I have no proof (other than vague memories), but I believe this was around even earlier on some of the more archaic CPU lines in the middle 80's. -- Yours, J.A. Terranson [EMAIL PROTECTED] 0xBD4A95BF "...justice is a duty towards those whom you love and those whom you do not. And people's rights will not be harmed if the opponent speaks out about them." Osama Bin Laden - - - "There aught to be limits to freedom!" George Bush - - - Which one scares you more?