Earlier quoted context omitted.
The alternative dystopia is one where the NSA can grab your laptop, rip out the storage, write some code into the boot chain, put the storage back, leave, and you have no evidence to know who did that. Signed code fixes this by requiring someone actually put their name to the code. If it's not someone I recognize, I don't boot. And yes, the NSA could theoretically compromise a signing key with a $5 wrench. But then t…
I mean can you actually protect against the NSA? After Stuxnet, I fully trust that nation/state actors can infect whatever they put their mind to - I'd rather at least have control over my machine
What is an SBAT and why does everyone suddenly care
201–210 of 276 posts
Re: What is an SBAT and why does everyone suddenly care
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
The alternative dystopia is one where the NSA can grab your laptop, rip out the storage, write some code into the boot chain, put the storage back, leave, and you have no evidence to know who did that. Signed code fixes this by requiring someone actually put their name to the code. If it's not someone I recognize, I don't boot. And yes, the NSA could theoretically compromise a signing key with a $5 wrench. But then t…
I mean can you actually protect against the NSA? After Stuxnet, I fully trust that nation/state actors can infect whatever they put their mind to - I'd rather at least have control over my machine
Which gives me another opportunity to quote from my favourite Usenix paper:
"In the real world, threat models are much simpler (see Figure 1). Basically, you’re either dealing with Mossad or not-Mossad. If your adversary is not-Mossad, then you’ll probably be fine if you pick a good password and don’t respond to emails from ChEaPestPAiNPi11s@ virus-basket.biz.ru. If your adversary is the Mossad, YOU’RE GONNA DIE AND THERE’S NOTHING THAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT. The Mossad is not intimidated by the fact that you employ https://. If the Mossad wants your data, they’re going to use a drone to replace your cellphone with a piece of uranium that’s shaped like a cellphone, and when you die of tumors filled with tumors, they’re going to hold a press conference and say “It wasn’t us” as they wear t-shirts that say “IT WAS DEFINITELY US,” and then they’re going to buy all of your stuff at your estate sale so that they can directly look at the photos of your vacation instead of reading your insipid emails about them. "
Figure 1:
Threat: Ex-girlfriend/boyfriend breaking into your email account and publicly releasing your correspondence with the My Little Pony fan club
Solution: Strong passwords
Threat: Organized criminals breaking into your email account and sending spam using your identity
Solution: Strong passwords + common sense (don’t click on unsolicited herbal Viagra ads that result in keyloggers and sorrow)
Threat: The Mossad doing Mossad things with your email account
Solution: • Magical amulets? • Fake your own death, move into a submarine? • YOU’RE STILL GONNA BE MOSSAD’ED UPON
-- https://www.usenix.org/system/files/1401_08-12_mickens.pdf
Re: What is an SBAT and why does everyone suddenly care
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would an agency wanting to MITM you publish data about the MITM certificates?
Because browsers can require certificates to be in the certificate transparency logs to be valid. Chrome already does this. If a government convinces a CA to create a malicious certificate and publishes this cert to the CT logs to perform MITM, it will get found out and that CA can close its doors.
Thus, they'll only use it under the strictest smallest of circumstances where the reward outweighs the risk, in a high profile scenario, rather than rolling it out willy nilly.
Similar to when threat actors use a 0day.. if they use it all the time it eventually gets discovered and fixed. If they save it for a special case they may manage to use it a couple of times before it gets patched.
Re: What is an SBAT and why does everyone suddenly care
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t know what country you live in but it’s impossible to decrease your attack surface when targeted by a Nation State Actor. Even more impossible if you live in the country in which the Nation State Actor controls through a plethora of agencies and relationships with corporations.
It is usually possible to decrease your attack surface.
Re: What is an SBAT and why does everyone suddenly care
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
That’s another foundation of conspiracy theory: one specific example can serve as evidence for universal truth. Sure, the specific claims of theory A might collapse, but it might as well be true because it could be true because of past example B that is along the same lines. I don’t doubt there is secret government surveillance we’d all be upset about. I’m not willing to use that general belief to assert the truth of…
The Snowden leaks weren't one specific example, they were dozens, involving every single big US tech company of any significance, and involving tons of different methods of surveillance.
Re: What is an SBAT and why does everyone suddenly care
#206Obviously people might screw up, but the spec included a way to revoke any signed components that turned out not to be trustworthy "trustworthy" according to who ? Remember that dystopia does not appear spontaneously, but steadily advances little-by-little. What's the summary? Microsoft (understandably) didn't want it to be possible to attack Windows by using a vulnerable version of grub that could be tricked into ex…
The alternative dystopia is one where the NSA can grab your laptop, rip out the storage, write some code into the boot chain, put the storage back, leave, and you have no evidence to know who did that. Signed code fixes this by requiring someone actually put their name to the code. If it's not someone I recognize, I don't boot. And yes, the NSA could theoretically compromise a signing key with a $5 wrench. But then t…
Re: What is an SBAT and why does everyone suddenly care
#207Re: What is an SBAT and why does everyone suddenly care
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
> When it comes to the realities of dual-booting The sad and depressing part is that along the way we lost all possibilities of running coreboot or libreboot as an open alternative. The only real option is to buy a used laptop from before the T44x generation (if you really want it secure)... or newer machines that come with other perks like soldered-on batteries that destroy the mainboard along with them when they le…
Framework comes with Intel ME enabled, not able to be disabled, and barely updates their firmware. For example, they left logofail unpatched for a year.
I just wish there would be more free and open options.
The RISC V meme of the Hackers movie from the 90s is now so old that it's never gonna happen anyways. Those CPUs are nice and all, but you're even better off using a Pentium CPU performance wise, and that's a 20 years old CPU.
Re: What is an SBAT and why does everyone suddenly care
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean can you actually protect against the NSA? After Stuxnet, I fully trust that nation/state actors can infect whatever they put their mind to - I'd rather at least have control over my machine
If your adversary is a nation state, you've already lost. Which gives me another opportunity to quote from my favourite Usenix paper: "In the real world, threat models are much simpler (see Figure 1). Basically, you’re either dealing with Mossad or not-Mossad. If your adversary is not-Mossad, then you’ll probably be fine if you pick a good password and don’t respond to emails from ChEaPestPAiNPi11s@ virus-basket.biz.…
Is that why it took 10 years to find Bin Laden, the most wanted man on Earth?
Get the feeling intel agencies aren't as omnipotent or competent as they want people to believe.
Re: What is an SBAT and why does everyone suddenly care
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
How does the MITM victim get a non-MITM connection to the CT logs so they can be sure to get the correct ones?
By using pinned certificates which are hardcoded into all the major browsers.