It is official; Uefi secure boot is a NSA inside project

[viking60]

Uefi secure boot with Microsoft certificate is a NSA project to keep the world safe. It is a cooperation with the NSA, MS and Intel.

The boot process updates the Bios with encrypted key-loggers and a sender, so the computer does not even have to be online.
The key-loggers can be installed by countries so there is no danger of breaking any laws or constitutions.
Lindows Suse and RedHat (through MS Uefi certificat) already have this in place.
The project is called NSA inside:

More here

[isadora]

April 1st?

[viking60]

I am not sure

It is a fact that the Norwgian secret police already have requested it:
http://bjoernvold.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=3190

[isadora]

Well yeah, you know, i prefer reputable information like:
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Lindows

[viking60]

I wish we had a spoiler here - there is so much I would have to tell you in a spoiler
Everybody knows that Lindows had to change the name because Microsoft/Intel and the NSA needed to reserve it for a project like this.

[isadora]

Impressing indeed, very very impressing.
It would be very well possible i completely have to change my point of view now.
Wait, i lay my head down for some well-earned rest, and probably provide a new (spoiled) vision after that

[isadora]

The Snow-guy called me and now i am sure.

This bird of paradise has to spread its' wings and fly away to wuthering heights.
Where dancing queens perform their show in a hotel called "California".
And where there are no suspicious minds, even no woman to cry about.

Well my heroes, maybe i see you around, where the streets have no names,
and where gardens are full of fake plastic trees.

From now on i am comfortably numb....

[viking60]

Yup And the NSA is your own personal Jesus - it is the fashion; or Depeche Mode as the French say....But most people are as you say; comfortably Numb depending on Mother to sort things out

The point is that we have such great people taking care of us - most people simply do not understand that.. you can trust the government. Whatever have they done to deserve that

And if you compute in the refrigerator the radio-waves will not reach out .. or ..
Do you think I should build a Wall?

[wobo]

This bird of paradise has to spread its' wings and fly away to wuthering heights.
Where dancing queens perform their show in a hotel called "California".
And where there are no suspicious minds, even no woman to cry about.

Well my heroes, maybe i see you around, where the streets have no names,
and where gardens are full of fake plastic trees.

From now on i am comfortably numb....

There can't reach wuthering heights without first climbing up that hill.
The dancing queens in hotel California never killed the beast-

Wandering the streets of Philadelphia their names don't matter.
And after talking to Quinn the eskimo I will keep my eyes wide shut!

(purchasing more tin foil for my hat...)

[jiml8]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveblank/ ... -inside/2/

[viking60]

Wow
I have to come clean now and confess that this was an April fools story.

The NSA and Intel have not.....eh Let me rephrase that. It is not proven that Intel has tampered with the hardware even if it is true that the Windows update also upgrades the Bios.

...and yes the Lindows part was a complete lie And NSA did not.....eh.. let me rephrase that;

To my knowledge the NSA has not called this project NSA inside.

(In any case you do not need the CPU for this; a simple USB plug is enough)
So yes tinfoil it is.
It makes sense to put it in the hat since the department for thought crimes may be able to intercept your thoughts...

[jiml8]

The link I provided is real. Whether this has actually been done or not, I cannot say. But the vector looks credible.

Also, the surly_spawn is apparently real; I found this: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/ ... n_nsa.html and the description of the device's functionality (in the comments) is technically sound. The person who wrote that comment knows what he is talking about. That device will have shortcomings (the CW illuminator probably should be located not too far from the device and there better be no solid walls or metal masses such as a filing cabinet in the way), but will certainly work.

[madeye]

<snip>.... it is true that the Windows update also upgrades the Bios. <snip>

Unfortunately I was bitten by this kind of update. My HP laptop removed the linux bootloader from default, and no matter what I did I couldn't get it to boot grub anymore. (apart from calling up the rescue boot menu and select the bootloader file directly (uefi)).
If I remove everything and only install Linux, it of course works as it should. It's just dual boot that MS and HP has totally messed up.
This resulted in me giving HP (the CEO) some feedback that contained some very, very bad language
And the only respone I got was "We only support one OS".

Sorry about the slightly off-topic. But I felt it would be a good idea to warn everybody that this kind of thing does happen in real life. Well, HP is in my black book now. And everyone who asks me about what to buy is told not to buy HP!

[jiml8]

Solution is simple enough. Don't dual-boot.

Either convert the Windows installation to a VM, install linux on the box, then boot Windows as a VM in linux (my preferred route) or install VM software on the Windows box and run linux as a VM (the easier route, given that the laptop comes with Windows installed).

[madeye]

That's also about the conclusion I have come to. And I'll choose the Linux in VM path for now. I don't want to throw a USD 1.800,- (DKK 10.000,-) laptop in the bin. Even though I have been thinking about using it for target practive at the local shooting range.
I don't like companies who takes away my freedom.

[viking60]

The link I provided is real. Whether this has actually been done or not, I cannot say. But the vector looks credible.

Also, the surly_spawn is apparently real; I found this: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/ ... n_nsa.html and the description of the device's functionality (in the comments) is technically sound. The person who wrote that comment knows what he is talking about. That device will have shortcomings (the CW illuminator probably should be located not too far from the device and there better be no solid walls or metal masses such as a filing cabinet in the way), but will certainly work.

Yes all this is true and you may be referring to this:

This patch, called a microcode update, can be loaded into a processor by using special CPU instructions reserved for this purpose. These updates are not permanent, which means each time you turn the computer on, its microprocessor is reset to its built-in microcode, and the update needs to be applied again (through a computer’sBIOS.).

That means that it is looking for the necessary update from Intel or Microsoft every time you boot. If it has been hacked it must have happened with the participation of one of the two (naturally the Government could order them too).

I just added some truth to the story to make the lie better - and now I wonder if it only is a truth that has not been completely told yet....

@madeye
HP bad - duly noted. And those laptops get to hot anyway. The problem is that there is not much clean hardware left according to the Snowden leaks:
Here is a list of compromised hardware.

[martinw]

Unfortunately I was bitten by this kind of update. My HP laptop removed the linux bootloader from default, and no matter what I did I couldn't get it to boot grub anymore. (apart from calling up the rescue boot menu and select the bootloader file directly (uefi)).

On my HP laptop, executing the following command in a Windows command shell (running as administrator) allowed me to change the default bootloader

Code: Select all

bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\refind\refind_x64.efi


(I'm using rEFInd, not grub, hence the path). Have you tried this?

[madeye]

I haven't tried bcdedit from windows. I have only tried changing the bootloader from linux.
Unfortunately I only have windows 8(.1) on the laptop now. When I get the time I will try and install it again and seeif I can get it to work.

[martinw]

I'm dual booting Mageia 4 and Windows 8.1. I had to rerun the bcdedit command after the upgrade from 8 to 8.1 - apart from that, I haven't had any problems with updates.