Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2012 20:36:07 +0200 (CEST) From: Nomen Nescio <nobody@dizum.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Is this something we (as consumers of FreeBSD) need to be aware of? Message-ID: <3bcbc47dabd93db62959ac1cc339cf76@dizum.com> In-Reply-To: <4FD0CA32.2060501@my.gd>
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> Totally off-topic, but I actually used mine to run gameboy and gameboy > advance emulators ^^' And I use mine to write PPC code. But Sony's business model wasn't about software development or doing what you and I are doing. > > Windows activation can check the firmware level and Intel's management BIOS > > is connected to the net even when your new PC is shut off (as long as it is > > plugged in). If you go along with this they can do whatever you want. You're > > submitting to true remote management/control over YOUR hardware and life. > > > > Well, I don't know about that... how do you suggest the BIOS gets its IP ? > The 8-STABLE box that acts as my router is not going to serve one over > DHCP or BOOTP any time soon. You seem to be focusing on the .01% cases. The UEFI was specifically designed to allow TCP/IP from the BIOS with the machine powered off, well before secure boot was on the table. Just because you can firewall it off doesn't mean everybody else understands the issues or knows how, because they don't. For all we know Intel or Microshaft have plenty of DHCP servers ready for this. > As for sniffing the network to guess the router + DNS servers, that one > might be a bit far-fetched. It's not going to be like Skype and do NAT traversals by itself and find it's way out of your box. It's just that if you leave your computer plugged in like everybody in the world does, the BIOS will be able to do whatever they program it to do, including downloading and flashing BIOS updates and whatever malware the dreaded Chinese hackers and Russian botnets create. Microshaft is pretty stupid because every time they create something "secure" the Russians or Chinese hack it in a day. I'll be surprised if they don't crack Verisigns keys and create exploits and this will be a better attack vector than they ever had because now they can flash your BIOS. All they could do before was replace your boot sector. > Seriously you need to stop with the "wintel", "microshaft", "mafia" and > all the stuff. Why? > However, there are literally thousands of people reading this list and > just because they do not share your ideals doesn't necessarily make them > advocates of this so-called "mafia", or blind sheep. Aside from the one ostrich I spanked I don't think they are either. > Finally, I can't come up with a scenario where my CEO is going to okay > alpha boxes for our regular web servers and such. > Our x86 servers run just fine and are roughly 12.000% cheaper. Yeah but nobody cares about that because they're not talking about doing this to server boxes. It's home PCs where people are usually not well informed and are usually defenseless. Try to stay focused on the discussion. > I can hardly see Dell shipping x86 servers with locked-in Windows > installs, that just won't do for their business. Right, so this doesn't apply. Why do you keep bringing it up? Even if it did apply, who cares? It's not your problem. The target is commodity WinTel crapware boxes. > I have to admit I'd love to see it though, I've always wanted us to try > Cisco or IBM's blade servers in lieu of Dell's. Intel is bad not just because of UEFI and secure boot. They're bad because they have conspired many times over the years with Microshaft to create a monopoly. Everybody should object to that. Say NO to the WinTel Mafia! (had to add that ;-))
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