[Info-vax] Intel x86-64 Processor Design Security Vulnerability?

[DaveFroble]

Simon Clubley wrote:
> On 2018-01-02, johnson.eric at gmail.com <johnson.eric at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Tuesday, January 2, 2018 at 11:20:30 AM UTC-5, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
>>> There's speculation around a potential security vulnerability and 
>>> related information embargo, involving various Intel x86-64 processors, 
>>> in the implementations of memory management and speculative execution.
>> Hopefully a similar vulnerability does not exist in Itanium. Seems
>> unlikely as they are different architectures. 
>>
> 
> What you should be worried about is the possibility of deliberate
> backdoors inserted in CPU architectures by the intelligence agencies.
> 
> Simon.
> 

Do you really think they could get away with that?  Remember the Sony root kit? 
  Someone will discover any such, and the vendor just might go out of business. 
  Even Intel.  Trust is a hard thing to earn, and oh so easy to lose.  Once 
lost, almost impossible to recover.

As far as that goes, any responsible chip mfg would just refuse to do such. 
What's the NSA to do then?  It'd go public, and, can I mention Edward Snowden?

But, then, I'm not into conspiracies ...

-- 
David Froble                       Tel: 724-529-0450
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