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Don't want a rootkit? Stop buying from Sony...Don't want a rootkit? Stop buying from Sony...Posted Nov 16, 2005 15:38 UTC (Wed) by gte223j (guest, #6492)In reply to: Don't want a rootkit? Stop buying from Sony... by hazelsct Parent article: Sony's rootkit: an update
"And how sure are we that the BIOS never phones home over the entire lifetime of the laptop? And if it doesn't for current models, what's to say it won't in the future?"
A bios that can form a packet and initialize the nic and send it down the wire.........sounds rational to me........
not to mention all of the net config stuff.........gateway and route.....and ARP......
and then not only would it have to do all of this...but it would have to gather good info.......hd mbr....or files.....and know how to mount a filesystem to send the really juicy data...........
granted it is possible.....but higly improbable......
paranoia cha cha cha........
--Brian
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Don't want a rootkit? Stop buying from Sony... Posted Nov 16, 2005 20:45 UTC (Wed) by deater (subscriber, #11746) [Link] Apparently you've never used PXE to boot Linux off a network. If you had you'd know the BIOS is perfectly capable of initializing the network card, running DHCP to get an IP address, and start making requests onto a network.
All of that before any Operating System is ever loaded.
Don't want a rootkit? Stop buying from Sony... Posted Nov 16, 2005 21:36 UTC (Wed) by gte223j (guest, #6492) [Link] You're right.......I haven't used PXE and it slipped my mind....my bad...........
however...... what if it is not a dhcp network??? how will it know how to get out............. and what about wireless......
the use case would be to phone home if there is a nic and there exists a dhcp server........
Again
"granted it is possible.....but highly improbable......"
I am not saying don't worry about it...but there comes a point when rationality is thrown out the window...............
--Brian
Don't want a rootkit? Stop buying from Sony... Posted Nov 16, 2005 23:26 UTC (Wed) by clump (subscriber, #27801) [Link] PXE is just one way x86 machines can do "networking" in the BIOS. SPARC machines have had this functionality and much more in their Openprom layer for many years. Very old SparcStations even can boot over NFS.
Why x86 vendors have never thought to offer a useful preboot layer is beyond me. Sure you can buy expensive systems and add-ons that can possibly give you SPARC-like functionality. Not to badmouth PXE, but please. That is the best standard x86 has to do network booting? x86 clearly leads in performance for the money. But for managability, even a Mac Mini can toast most Dells.
That said, my point is that just because x86 *still* isn't very mature in the BIOS does not mean a vendor couldn't phone home. Since other vendors have had smart preboots for years means the technology exists. I wouldn't put it past Sony to do such a thing.
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