A fuzzy issue of responsible disclosure

Posted Sep 1, 2022 0:46 UTC (Thu) by pabs (subscriber, #43278)
In reply to: A fuzzy issue of responsible disclosure by anton
Parent article: A fuzzy issue of responsible disclosure

Hmm, I wonder if anyone has fuzzed the PS/2 code in Linux.

A fuzzy issue of responsible disclosure

Posted Sep 1, 2022 13:24 UTC (Thu) by anton (subscriber, #25547) [Link]

PS/2 does not support mass storage devices, so an attack through a corrupt file system image is not possible through PS/2. Looking beyond the topic at hand, the attacker will have a harder time seducing a naive user to plug something into the PS/2 ports (which are used up by keyboard and mouse).

A fuzzy issue of responsible disclosure

Posted Sep 1, 2022 13:36 UTC (Thu) by anarcat (subscriber, #66354) [Link] (2 responses)

Blast from the past... Are there *any* computers still shipping with PS/2 ports nowadays? I haven't seen those in a while on new computers. Certainly not in any laptop for years, at least.

Also, PS/2, is that the thing that would fry your motherboard if you plugged (or unplugged? I forgot) it after boot? Seems like they fixed that at some point, but I guess it's pointless to fuzz a stack where "plugging it in" crashes the *hardware* in the first place...

A fuzzy issue of responsible disclosure

Posted Sep 1, 2022 19:47 UTC (Thu) by james (subscriber, #1325) [Link] (1 responses)

Laptops, no, but if you buy a separate motherboard for a desktop PC, it's likely to have PS/2. Apparently some gamers like it because USB involves polling, which implies the dreaded latency -- and it seems that mass-market motherboards are all aimed at gamers, judging by the prevalence of RGB headers and snazzy colour schemes.

I actually got a bit emotional this week, retiring a Proper Green board (Intel brand) for a black and white ASUS one. But both of them had PS/2 and VGA (which was also introduced with the PS/2).

A fuzzy issue of responsible disclosure

Posted Sep 2, 2022 13:19 UTC (Fri) by geert (subscriber, #98403) [Link]

Yeah, mass-market PCs seem to target only two user bases: light office work, or heavy gaming.
That's how I ended up with a large case with a window, and RGB LEDs lighting up the void around the PCIe slots. The DIMM slots are maxed out, though, which was the key factor dictating motherboard size.

Oh yes, it has a PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port, but no VGA connector.