[5729] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: having source code for your CPU chip -- NOT
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bill Frantz)
Wed Sep 22 13:52:43 1999
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Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 09:26:51 -0700
To: Arnold Reinhold <reinhold@world.std.com>, John Gilmore <gnu@toad.com>,
William Allen Simpson <wsimpson@greendragon.com>
From: Bill Frantz <frantz@netcom.com>
Cc: cryptography@c2.net, gnu@toad.com
At 9:15 PM -0700 9/21/99, Arnold Reinhold wrote:
>First of all, I've always thought that Thompson's paper was
>excessively defeatist. It should be possible to bootstrap an open
>source C++ compiler from a simple C subset and then have several
>grouts independently produce subset C compilers in assembler code. Or
>compile it on ancient machines, e.g. PDP-11 using original compilers.
>The bad guys can't have anticipated that far ahead.
My own approach would be to audit the generated code. In KeyKOS/370, we
"solved" the problem by using an assembler which was written before KeyKOS
was designed. (N.B. KeyKOS/370 was written in 370 Assembler H).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Frantz | The availability and use of secure encryption may |
Periwinkle | offer an opportunity to reclaim some portion of |
Consulting | the privacy we have lost. - B. FLETCHER, Circuit Judge |
