[117763] in Cypherpunks
Postulates for "trusted"/"maliced" soft and hard ware
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Gary Jeffers)
Fri Sep 10 01:55:24 1999
Message-ID: <006b01befb5e$3e94f680$a2c7a5d0@minemine>
From: "Gary Jeffers" <jeffers@htc.net>
To: <cypherpunks@cyberpass.net>
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1999 00:29:38 -0700
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POSTULATES FOR "TRUSTED"/"MALICED" SOFT AND HARD WARE
1. NSA CHIPPING: The NSA either already has or soon will have the
major cpu chip makers design in backdoors to be opened by
signal strings over the Internet. This is too elegant and too
cheap on a per target basis to pass up.
2. The ESSENTIAL TRUSTED CHIP. Computer security demands trusted chips.
A trusted chip is a cpu chip that is known to be free of backdoors.
3. Hardware trumps software. Software is usually blind to back-
doors in hardware. On the other hand, trusted chips can
rescue us from backdoored hardware and software.
4. Secure, Hard, System Nucelli are essential. With the many chips
and millions of bytes of executable binaries on modern computers,
only computer systems that are subdivided with trusted chip
sentinels can be secure from backdoors.
5. The backdoor assumption. You must assume that your system has at
least one backdoor in it. This assumption will give you the
possibility of defeating an installed backdoor.
Question?: Is there currently such a thing as a cpu chip of
which we can be sure of its architecture?
Could there be in theory? If you had a trusted one, could you
use it to test another cpu chip?
Yours Truly,
Gary Jeffers
BEAT STATE!!!!
=1A
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<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2> =
POSTULATES FOR=20
"TRUSTED"/"MALICED" SOFT AND HARD WARE</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2>1. NSA CHIPPING: The NSA either =
already has or=20
soon will have the<BR> major cpu chip makers design in =
backdoors to=20
be opened by<BR> signal strings over the Internet. This is =
too=20
elegant and too<BR> cheap on a per target basis to pass=20
up.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2>2. The ESSENTIAL TRUSTED CHIP. =
Computer security=20
demands trusted chips.<BR> A trusted chip is a cpu chip that =
is=20
known to be free of backdoors.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2>3. Hardware trumps software. =
Software is usually=20
blind to back-<BR> doors in hardware. On the other hand, =
trusted=20
chips can<BR> rescue us from backdoored hardware and=20
software.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2>4. Secure, Hard, System Nucelli are =
essential.=20
With the many chips<BR> and millions of bytes of executable =
binaries=20
on modern computers,<BR> only computer systems that are =
subdivided=20
with trusted chip<BR> sentinels can be secure from=20
backdoors.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2>5. The backdoor assumption. You must =
assume that=20
your system has at<BR> least one backdoor in it. This =
assumption=20
will give you the<BR> possibility of defeating an installed=20
backdoor.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2>Question?: Is there currently such a =
thing as a=20
cpu chip of<BR>which we can be sure of its architecture?<BR>Could there =
be in=20
theory? If you had a trusted one, could you<BR>use it to test another =
cpu=20
chip?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2>Yours Truly,<BR>Gary =
Jeffers</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2>BEAT =
STATE!!!!<BR>=1A</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>
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