The Difference

The Difference

Posted Feb 8, 2007 19:35 UTC (Thu) by cjb (guest, #40354)
In reply to: The Difference by orospakr
Parent article: Bitfrost: the OLPC security model

(actually, the theft protection scheme in Bitfrost could be considered a theoretical weak point. A modchip-like device or similar hack could possibly be used to disable the anti-theft protection. However, this is unlikely to be feasible in practice. Therefore, the theft protection system has done its job: deterring theft.)

Rather than being a weak point, I'd just call this something that isn't covered by the threat model. The worries that motivated the security system came from (for example) the possibility of someone writing a virus that bricks the BIOS on all n-hundred-million laptops at once, making them useless. Reducing that risk to the possibility of breaking the security on one laptop at a time, by disassembling it and resoldering the BIOS, is a huge step forward.

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