eric
============= In Reply To: ===========================================
: From: Aleph One <aleph1@DFW.NET>
: Subject: Re: Intel Pentium Bug
: Date: Fri, 7 Nov 1997 19:49:28 -0600
: On Fri, 7 Nov 1997, George Imburgia wrote:
:
: > Intel recently acknowledged that they enabled the ability to update
: > microcode on Pentium chips several years ago. That's right folks, they put
: > a backdoor in your hardware. The good news is, it could be used to fix
: > this bug, should Intel be so inclined.
: >
: > AMD's microcode is updateable too. No clue about cyrix.
:
: This is something I discussed with a friend about two years ago.
: Imagine if you will someone with information on how to download new
: microcode to the CPU. This person has the availity to write a
: virus/trojan/activex/program that can now compleatly disable your CPU
: in such a way that it would need to be taken out to reinitialize.
: If they fully disable the CPU the end user would program replace every
: single component of the computer before the CPU. This would cost thousands
: of hours of lost work and man power.
:
: Far worse, it could introduse subtle random flaws in for example the login
: or artihmetic processing. How may industries would be affected if hit?
: Or what about microcode backdoors that add your own instructions to
: bypass memory protection? You could write your own program to modify
: your process structure to become owned by root. The possibilities are
: endless.
:
: If Intel where to provide a program to update the microcode on the CPU
: it would most probably be disassembled and reverse engineered quickly.
: Whats a multi-billion company to do?C
:
: > George Imburgia, Network Specialist Phone: (302)739-4068
: > Delaware Technical & Community College Fax: (302 739-3345
: > Office of the President e-mail: gti@hopi.dtcc.edu
:
: Aleph One / aleph1@dfw.net
: http://underground.org/
: KeyID 1024/948FD6B5
: Fingerprint EE C9 E8 AA CB AF 09 61 8C 39 EA 47 A8 6A B8 01