Why funded by Microsoft+Intel? NGSCB backward compatibility!

Why funded by Microsoft+Intel? NGSCB backward compatibility!

Posted Oct 3, 2003 4:02 UTC (Fri) by NZheretic (guest, #409)
Parent article: The first stable Xen release

A quick glance over the Xen group's paper leaves me very impressed with the performance these techniques can achieve. That the Xen group has decided to release the code under the GPL leaves me very grateful. However, that both Intel Research and Microsoft Research has funded it, leaves me somewhat concerned.

As I have stated before about Microsoft's purchase of Connectix's Virtual Server technology

In my opinion Microsoft's acquisition of Connectix's Virtual Server technology has very little to do with running any other vendors operating system.

Microsoft needs a Virtual Server for backward compatibility for it's NGSCB ( Next Generation Secure Computing Base ) DRM ( Denial of Rights Mechanism ) platform.

Just as Microsoft's XP backward Win9x compatability opens up many locally exploitable API to gain SystemLocal privilege access, to the point where many programs need Adminstrator privilege to run, existing XP and win2k software would open up too many opportunities for helpfull hacker to bypass Microsoft's NGSCB DRM mechanisms.

Microsoft's all too obvious solution is to provide a "Virtual" PC mode, running a modified XP and WinME, with the NGSCB providing virtual filesystems and hardware access. All, access of course, with the NGSCB DRM scanning and control.

Where do you want to go tomorrow?

The Electronic Frontier Foundation have just published an article Trusted Computing: Promise and Risk on the risks surrounding remote attestation model of TCB and NGSCB.

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