I wonder what government sponsored back doors they plan to include...
This has been mentioned before. Only suggested response so far is to fight tooth and nail to ensure that hub-dependent programs can work transparently with a software fill-in. Otherwise you could potentially need to break a tamper-resistant chip, patch the software (fortify^2...), or pull off some such superhuman feat. (By the way, the address for letters to the editors of Mobile Computing and Communications, in case you want to respond to the articles mentioned, is <letters@mobilecomputing.com>) More redundant reiterations of senseless nonsense: I'm not so confident it'd be backdoored, but if it's closed-source (not unlikely) that is, for obvious reasons, bad. Even if not, it will, with probability just barely <1, result in Intel as a major CA. I don't think the hub'd be backdoored because it'd be a risky investment for anybody to backdoor it; although I'm not sure the hub'd be closed-source, anything trivially and undetectably compromised is about as bad; Intel'd use the hub to become a CA just because it makes business sense.
Intel's Security Plans Worry PC Builders
(12/14/98, 3:49 p.m. ET) By Rick Boyd-Merritt and Mark Carroll, EE Times
Intel will add new security and software functions to future chip sets in a move that will boost the profile of its upcoming Katmai processors as key silicon for multimedia and e-commerce. But the plan is raising concerns among software, semiconductor and systems companies that fear the processor giant could wind up encroaching on their markets, extending its own reach deeper into the PC architecture.
Intel's plans center around a so-called firmware hub, essentially a flash memory with key BIOS functions, which will be part of its Camino, Carmel, and Whitney chip sets. Those products will accompany next year's Katmai processors and are expected to be used in the Merced line, too.
"This is an example of Intel taking in one more piece of the PC architecture," said a senior R&D manager with a major PC company who asked not to be named.
Intel would not comment on its unannounced products. However, the key features of the chip are beginning to come to light based on reports from multiple sources. The firmware hub is "basically a flash chip with locks on its read and write capabilities that can be opened using a cryptographic protocol," said another source briefed by Intel.
Hardware security functions include a cryptographic engine to authenticate digital certificates Intel or a third party could load in. The chip could hold multiple certificates, each with permission to grant specific features, such as to permit an operating system or an MPEG player to run. They would also ensure a software program licensed to one user was not copied and run on another machine, a common practice. In addition, the certificates will act like unique serial numbers, identifying a given machine in any Internet or corporate network transaction, sources said.
The hub may also include a random-number generator to create public keys for encryption and help enable encrypted transmissions between PCs. That would provide security for e-commerce and software downloads, possibly including software modules for host-based modems, MPEG players, or audio codecs that are housed in the firmware hub and run on the CPU.
Another feature sources have mentioned is physical security, linking sensors to the hub so it may report problems to a central network administrator if the case is tampered with or peripherals are removed.
Even though the firmware -- and the chip sets it is part of -- are not due for production until at least mid-1999, samples have been available in Taiwan for some time.
"We have had samples of the firmware hub for a while," said a project manager at First International Computer, in Taiwan. "We really haven't done too much with it yet. It is still not quite clear when it will be used and what its full functions will be."
The hub chip is designed to incorporate new features into the PC upon start-up, the manager said, not to replace the standard BIOS, the key software that controls system I/O peripherals software.
"After a PC is turned on, the firmware hub will be accessed and then the regular BIOS," said a BIOS engineer with another Taiwanese company. "The hub will affect the standard BIOS architecture, but it certainly won't replace it. That's not its purpose."
Yet the prospect of a possible Intel incursion into BIOS is giving some industry observers the willies. Adding to their concern is the fact that Intel has not provided technical details about its implementation yet. One analyst said the hub will act as a BIOS registry, a place from which software emulation and upgrades can be controlled.
Sources close to Intel suggested the Santa Clara, Calif., company would be leery of entering a new PC-related market while under the shadow of a Federal Trade Commission investigation. The company's motive is simply to bring new features to the PC, enhancing sales for corporate and consumer users, these sources said.
Still, "If Intel controls what and how stuff gets put in the BIOS, that's really significant," said one analyst. "That's a wonderful control choke point."