Secure Boot Isn't So Secure After All: The Golden Key Is Out

[rubdos]

Tegra 3 with 10" 1366x768 screen? Not what I would call awesome.

I agree.

The IdeaPad A10 is ARM based and comes with Android, and it can run Debian with some tinkering, but without having to defeat Secure Boot.

It's an IdeaPad

[dimko]

Well when secureboot first came out it was accused of being some giant conspiracy to stop PCs from ever running Linux.
5 years later and dozens of easy successful Linux installs later [long before this hack was announced], that was obviously wrong.

As for preventing boot-level malware, well the vast majority of malware has no need to ever get that low-level in the first place, so we're not really any less secure in the real-world than before secureboot showed up.

In other news, I'd greatly like to see secureboot put onto every Android device in existence. I'd like the so-called "open" Android platform to be just as locked down as all those evil Microsoft PCs so I can actually put a real Linux distribution on it just like the supposedly "locked down" PCs.

No it was not. Some laptops dont have option for BIOS anymore.
Some laptop's secureboots are buggy as hell, and it took me several days to figure out what the hell the problem is. It's not a success story no matter how you look at it.

Now, I compile kernels myself for my PC. I am ZERO interested in messing with secure boot. End of story.

[Kano]

That's incorrect. Often you only need to set a password to disable Secure Boot.

[starshipeleven]

Hrmmmm.... ways that I know your repeated posts are all wrong:
1. Linux installs just fine.
2. You cited zdnet as "proof" of your assertions. Automatic admission that you're wrong.

1a. on windows mobile phones? On most laptops that have no way to disable Secure boot before someone flashes an updated UEFI firmware (if there is one at all)? Also did linux ALWAYS installed just fine? Because now it's like 5 years after the fact. When it was introduced it was a rough ride.
1b. Ubuntu and other distros (Fedora) paid microsoft to get their own key, so yeah, they work fine even with Secureboot. But that's an issue for others.

[kpedersen]

Tegra 3 with 10" 1366x768 screen? Not what I would call awesome.

Haha, I suppose its all relative. I am still rocking my Thinkpad T42p after all

I guess what I meant was it is awesome as far as "open" ARM tablets go. Not only are there very few open ARM tablets in the wild (does anyone else find this really weird?) but those that do exist are very low spec prototype or test devices.

[GreenFireFly]

Hrmmmm.... ways that I know your repeated posts are all wrong:
1. Linux installs just fine.
2. You cited zdnet as "proof" of your assertions. Automatic admission that you're wrong.

The reason there is double post is cause i was having trouble posting for some reason.

1.Just because someone found a way around secure boot that does not mean that they did not intend to lock other operating systems out.
2.You can also find the Free Software Foundation referring secure boot as restricted boot.
3.Unlike you i don't just listen and believe.

[Nille_kungen]

Actually it references the cracking scene. Cracked games had a "cracktro" like this one.

The difference between the demoscene and crack-intros is a matter of interpretation and everyone has a different interpretation.
There's also widely spread opinions about from when a crack-intro should be included in the demoscene.
I'm not saying your wrong only that it's more of an potato potahto argument.

[chuckula]

Conspiracy Fact!
http://www.zdnet.com/article/microso...ecurity-panic/

Hrmmmm.... ways that I know your repeated posts are all wrong:
1. Linux installs just fine.
2. You cited zdnet as "proof" of your assertions. Automatic admission that you're wrong.

[GreenFireFly]

Conspiracy Fact! Secure Boot was meant to stop you from installing other operating systems. This two paragraphs are from microsoft-secure-boot-key debacle.

The design flaw in the Windows operating system can be used to unlock Windows devices, including smartphones and tablets, which are otherwise protected by Secure Boot in order to run operating systems other than Windows on locked down systems.

This, in turn, allows someone with admin rights or an attacker with physical access to a machine not only to bypass Secure Boot and run any operating system they wish, such as Linux or Android, but also permits the installation and execution of bootkit and rootkits at the deepest level of the device, security researchers MY123 and Slipstream revealed in a blog post on Tuesday.

The full article can be found here.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-secure-boot-key-debacle-causes-security-panic/

[GreenFireFly]

Well when secureboot first came out it was accused of being some giant conspiracy to stop PCs from ever running Linux.
5 years later and dozens of easy successful Linux installs later [long before this hack was announced], that was obviously wrong.

As for preventing boot-level malware, well the vast majority of malware has no need to ever get that low-level in the first place, so we're not really any less secure in the real-world than before secureboot showed up.

In other news, I'd greatly like to see secureboot put onto every Android device in existence. I'd like the so-called "open" Android platform to be just as locked down as all those evil Microsoft PCs so I can actually put a real Linux distribution on it just like the supposedly "locked down" PCs.

Conspiracy Fact! Secure Boot was meant to stop you from installing other operating systems. This two paragraphs are from microsoft-secure-boot-key debacle.

The design flaw in the Windows operating system can be used to unlock Windows devices, including smartphones and tablets, which are otherwise protected by Secure Boot in order to run operating systems other than Windows on locked down systems.

This, in turn, allows someone with admin rights or an attacker with physical access to a machine not only to bypass Secure Boot and run any operating system they wish, such as Linux or Android, but also permits the installation and execution of bootkit and rootkits at the deepest level of the device, security researchers MY123 and Slipstream revealed in a blog post on Tuesday.

The full article can be found here.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-secure-boot-key-debacle-causes-security-panic/