[5565] in bugtraq
Re: Intel Pentium Bug
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Travis Hassloch)
Tue Nov 11 23:35:15 1997
Date: Tue, 11 Nov 1997 20:22:02 -0600
Reply-To: Travis Hassloch <travish@DEJANEWS.COM>
From: Travis Hassloch <travish@DEJANEWS.COM>
X-To: Aleph One <aleph1@DFW.NET>
To: BUGTRAQ@NETSPACE.ORG
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 07 Nov 1997 19:49:28 CST."
<Pine.SUN.3.94.971107193930.26939A-100000@dfw.dfw.net>
In message <Pine.SUN.3.94.971107193930.26939A-100000@dfw.dfw.net>, Aleph One wr
ites:
>If Intel where to provide a program to update the microcode on the CPU
>it would most probably be disassembled and reverse engineered quickly.
>Whats a multi-billion company to do?
http://techweb.cmp.com/eet/news/97/961news/ibug.html
> "Each BIOS Update is tailored for a particular stepping of [a] processor,"
> according to Intel technical documentation obtained by EE Times. "The
> data within the update is encrypted by Intel and is designed such that
> it is rejected by any stepping of the processor other than its intended
> recipient. The encryption scheme also guards against tampering of the
> update data and provides a means for determining the authenticity of
> any given BIOS update."
>
> The heart of BIOS Update is a block of data precisely 2,048 bytes in
> length. Of that block, 2,000 bytes are the actual update; the remainder
> is header and checksum information. The update gets loaded into the
> processor by an "update loader," which BIOS vendors are required to
> include in the firmware they provide for use with Intel's CPUs.
--
Travis Hassloch / travish@dejanews.com / http://www.dejanews.com
Deja News System Administration Group / "When news breaks... we fix it."
PGP key C7FDD3D5 fgpt 7A 48 DD 46 E6 7F 11 E7 8F 7E 53 9A DF 33 9E FA
