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

[Gordan Bobic]

On 01/15/2012 04:09 PM, lkcl luke wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 15, 2012 at 4:06 PM, Gordan Bobic<gordan at bobich.net>  wrote:
>
>>> may be enabled' — which prevents users from customizing their security,
>>> and in section 21: 'Disabling Secure MUST NOT be possible on ARM
>>> systems' to prevent you from booting any other OSes."
>>
>> I rather expect that all it'll take to disable all that is a working JTAG.
>
>   *click*.... now that's... of course.  smart.
>
>   two problems though: a) it doesn't help the average user (who won't
> know what a JTAG is) b)

The average user doesn't know _of_ anything but Windows, either. Your 
point is irrelevant.

> i may be wrong about this but it still won't
> gain you the private key, so it would only be people prepared to hack
> their device electronically who could benefit, and nobody else.

Maybe, maybe not. If you can use JTAG to re-flash a custom boot loader 
then you can jail break the device. Sure, the device may come without a 
JTAG port soldered on, but ultimately if it is a device good enough to 
be worth bothering with, then those that _want_ to run Linux on it 
_will_ run Linux on it. The rest wouldn't bother wanting to run Linux in 
the first place.

I don't really see that it's that big a deal.

Gordan