Intel driven MacBook Pros have secondary ARM processor for Touch ID and security
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Re: Intel driven MacBook Pros have secondary ARM processor for Touch ID and security
#2Re: Intel driven MacBook Pros have secondary ARM processor for Touch ID and security
#3Wired has an interesting and in-depth article on this. Also, the camera seems to have more security than earlier.
> In the MacBook, the Secure Enclave is part of Apple’s new T1 processor, meaning it’s tied explicitly to the touch bar and Touch ID. It’s also, though, in charge of your webcam, a small but important difference.
> “In previous generations of Macbook the webcam light was software controlled—which meant that an attacker who compromised your OS could potentially activate the camera without turning on the light,” says Johns Hopkins University cryptography expert Matthew Green. “Adding a separate secure processor could make this much harder to do.”
https://www.wired.com/2016/10/macbook-pro-touch-id-secure-en...
Re: Intel driven MacBook Pros have secondary ARM processor for Touch ID and security
#4Not really that surprising. Your average laptop nowadays probably has more ARM cores than x86 cores. They're in all kinds of peripherials like wifi controllers, power supplies, harddisk controllers, GPU job control, heck even AMD's recent APUs come with an integrated Cortex-A5.[1] ARM cores are everywhere, people just don't know about it.
[1]http://www.anandtech.com/show/6007/amd-2013-apus-to-include-...
Re: Intel driven MacBook Pros have secondary ARM processor for Touch ID and security
#5Wired has an interesting and in-depth article on this. Also, the camera seems to have more security than earlier. > In the MacBook, the Secure Enclave is part of Apple’s new T1 processor, meaning it’s tied explicitly to the touch bar and Touch ID. It’s also, though, in charge of your webcam, a small but important difference. > “In previous generations of Macbook the webcam light was software controlled—which meant th…
Or, you know, spare one of the trillion transistors to switch power to 1) camera and 2) LED.
There, solved. No full-powered ARM needed to control an indicator light.
Re: Intel driven MacBook Pros have secondary ARM processor for Touch ID and security
#6Not really that surprising. Your average laptop nowadays probably has more ARM cores than x86 cores. They're in all kinds of peripherials like wifi controllers, power supplies, harddisk controllers, GPU job control, heck even AMD's recent APUs come with an integrated Cortex-A5.[1] ARM cores are everywhere, people just don't know about it. [1] http://www.anandtech.com/show/6007/amd-2013-apus-to-include-...
What is the AMD equivalent of Intel's open-source tboot for trusted execution, to take advantage of ARM TrustZone on an AMD processor?
Re: Intel driven MacBook Pros have secondary ARM processor for Touch ID and security
#7Wired has an interesting and in-depth article on this. Also, the camera seems to have more security than earlier. > In the MacBook, the Secure Enclave is part of Apple’s new T1 processor, meaning it’s tied explicitly to the touch bar and Touch ID. It’s also, though, in charge of your webcam, a small but important difference. > “In previous generations of Macbook the webcam light was software controlled—which meant th…
Or, you know, spare one of the trillion transistors to switch power to 1) camera and 2) LED. There, solved. No full-powered ARM needed to control an indicator light.
The ARM was not bought to power the LED, it was bought in for TouchID. The camera LED is the icing, not the cake.
Re: Intel driven MacBook Pros have secondary ARM processor for Touch ID and security
#8Who cares, now the LED is connected to the "secure enclave" ARM, previously it was connected to the SMC ARM.
The point is: no frikken ARM should control the LED.
Re: Intel driven MacBook Pros have secondary ARM processor for Touch ID and security
#9Any idea whether this secure enclave will work if you are running Linux? (I like the hardware, but I am more used to the Linux/GNU/gnome software)
Re: Intel driven MacBook Pros have secondary ARM processor for Touch ID and security
#10The one thing I will say is even though Apple's software quality lately has taken a hit. Their commitment to security has only gotten stronger.
The secure enclave, hardware level security, all of the things that came up with the FBI request have become a self serving prophecy for them.
I applaud them for this and it looks like the MacBook Pro is going to be one of the most secure laptops around. Nothing is perfect of course.
Even though I applaud them for this I am still pissed about the headphone jack.