[Arm-netbook] Microsoft confirms UEFI fears, locks down ARM devices

[Alain Williams]

On Sat, Jan 14, 2012 at 07:50:37PM +0000, Luke Leighton wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 14, 2012 at 6:22 PM, Alain Williams <addw at phcomp.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> > That is roughtly what it did all those years ago. I'm not sure if there was
> > the ability to refuse to boot if signatures were not verified, but that would
> > have been a trivial addition:
> 
> 
> 
> well, this time, it's unbreakable.  the boot loader's internal to the CPU,
> in a small amount of internal NAND.  there's no access to that; there's
> no way to replace it: nothing.

Oh -- I didn't see that bit.

But if it is internal to the CPU then it will be quite hard to change if/when
someone creates a signed versions of grub (or something) that will then
happily load anything.... this only will need to be done once.

Maybe we ought to mention something to DVD John.
They will probably scream DMCA, but I suspect will have a hard time getting
it to stick in the courts.

-- 
Alain Williams
Linux/GNU Consultant - Mail systems, Web sites, Networking, Programmer, IT Lecturer.
+44 (0) 787 668 0256  http://www.phcomp.co.uk/
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