Date: Thu, 16 Oct 1997 00:24:51 -0600 (MDT) From: Wes Peters <softweyr@xmission.com> To: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au> Cc: chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: C2 Trusted FreeBSD? Message-ID: <199710160624.AAA12395@obie.softweyr.ml.org> In-Reply-To: <199710150140.LAA00804@word.smith.net.au> References: <Pine.BSF.3.96.971014211120.2865J-100000@dworkin.amber.org> <199710150140.LAA00804@word.smith.net.au>
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Mike Smith writes:
> Please note that I am *not* questioning whether, given analog access to
> the storage device, previous data state(s) can be recovered; this is a
> given.
>
> What I *am* questioning is why this is a requirement in a purely
> software environment, where it is not possible via software to
> determine anything other than the current value of a given storage
> location.
>
> The only methods for obtaining the previous contents of a storage
> location involve physical analog access to the hardware, and if you
> have this then system security has already been compromised because you
> could have recorded the original value when it was current.
Not according to the crowd of ex-Iomega engineers I work with. With
access to the head controls and the data splitter (i.e. poking around
behaving like a device driver) you can do some pretty mysterious things
to a disk drive. With more modern devices like IDE and SCSI, where the
controller is embedded on the drive and you have limited access to the
data stream, this is probably not quite so true, but still dangerous
enough you're not going to convince the US gummint to change their
collective mind (sic).
--
"Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"
Wes Peters Softweyr LLC
http://www.xmission.com/~softweyr softweyr@xmission.com
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