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“Microsoft Pluton Hardware Security Coming to Our CPUs”: AMD, Intel, Qualcomm

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Re: “Microsoft Pluton Hardware Security Coming to Our CPUs”: AMD, Intel, Qualcomm

#6
post #3
post #2

Is Pluton specifically Windows related? Will this affect how easy it is to run Linux on hardware using Pluton?

Booting Linux is really a policy question, not technical.

Is it a policy question without Pluton? I.e. will this allow hardware vendors additional means to prevent me from installing Linux?

Re: “Microsoft Pluton Hardware Security Coming to Our CPUs”: AMD, Intel, Qualcomm

#7
post #2

Is Pluton specifically Windows related? Will this affect how easy it is to run Linux on hardware using Pluton?

If Qualcomm is implementing it, I'm sure it will on a technical level. Linux is important to AMD and Intel, but Linux-running devices represent nearly all of Qualcomm's non-embedded SOC market.

Whether vendors can use it to restrict such things, I don't think anyone can say right now, but I would guess and hope not. The TPM does not.

Re: “Microsoft Pluton Hardware Security Coming to Our CPUs”: AMD, Intel, Qualcomm

#8
post #2

Is Pluton specifically Windows related? Will this affect how easy it is to run Linux on hardware using Pluton?

In the embodiment I've seen, it's a ARM M-class core with some special crypto hardware and certain registers that allow the use of crypto keys without software running on the core ever seeing the key. There's a communication channel to the rest of the system, which is completely OS-agnostic.

In Azure Sphere, Windows is nowhere in sight. The device runs a Linux Kernel.

Re: “Microsoft Pluton Hardware Security Coming to Our CPUs”: AMD, Intel, Qualcomm

#9
A previous HN link is here -- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25131431 -- which links to MS's original press release -- https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2020/11/17/meet-the-....

That article explicitly states that it was designed originally for the xbox. I worry that going to be a very anti-consumer, anti-free-speech, DRM heavy chip that MS want to popularise as an alternative to the (still hated in some circles) TPM. Why else would they design it for the xbox, of all things? Is it aimed to stop speculative execution attacks on a cloud server, or provide Level 4 DRM to Widevine's as-yet-unannounced competitor?

Re: “Microsoft Pluton Hardware Security Coming to Our CPUs”: AMD, Intel, Qualcomm

#10
post #8
post #2

Is Pluton specifically Windows related? Will this affect how easy it is to run Linux on hardware using Pluton?

In the embodiment I've seen, it's a ARM M-class core with some special crypto hardware and certain registers that allow the use of crypto keys without software running on the core ever seeing the key. There's a communication channel to the rest of the system, which is completely OS-agnostic. In Azure Sphere, Windows is nowhere in sight. The device runs a Linux Kernel.

Is this replacing the Cortex A5 used for the PSB? https://www.servethehome.com/amd-psb-vendor-locks-epyc-cpus-...
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