U-Boot Finally Lands HTTP & TCP Support For Downloading Images

[rene]

It's answered in the actual article:

can't wait for this random unused code bloat to be deleted in some years and making headlines for streamlining the codebase and making FINALLY making maintenance easier again, ..! ;-)

[hotaru]

Any pointers on this usage of "Nimrod?"
Apart from a serious arse kicker from the old testament who is less reliably held responsible for the Tower of Babel fiasco I don't see the connection.
Coincidentally the Enigma variation of Elgar titled Nimrod was just played on the local FM radio station.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/Nimrod

The word came to mean "geek, klutz" by 1983 in teenager slang, for unknown reasons. (Amateur theories include its occasional use in "Bugs Bunny" cartoon episodes featuring rabbit-hunting Elmer Fudd as a foil; its alleged ironic use, among hunters, for a clumsy member of their fraternity; or a stereotype of deer hunters by the non-hunting population in the U.S.)

[sadoon_albader]

It's 2022 and you can sign binaries.

With all due respect this argument is irrelevant. Anything from the internet can be malware, even images, and history agrees.
It's completely unnecessary is what it is. A bootloader should bootstrap the operating system, that's it.

EDIT: I feel like an idiot but I just woke up.

Just realized that images here is referring to system images and not PNGs and such.

This might be useful but is also a security hole if not disabled by default on production systems.

[sinepgib]

With all due respect this argument is irrelevant. Anything from the internet can be malware, even images, and history agrees.
It's completely unnecessary is what it is. A bootloader should bootstrap the operating system, that's it.

EDIT: I feel like an idiot but I just woke up.

Just realized that images here is referring to system images and not PNGs and such.

This might be useful but is also a security hole if not disabled by default on production systems.

While I agree that it's sensible to disable these kind of feature by default (in fact, for a bootloader aimed at embedded all non-essential features should be opt-in both at build time and runtime), the point here is that downloading a signed boot image has a much more reduced chance to become a rootkit. It's not the old days. If you're careful and don't leak your private keys and, if possible, proactively replace them with newer key pairs, and of course only allow signed images to load, you should be safe distributing via internet if you want.