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Old June 6th 18, 05:55 AM posted to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
xJumper
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Default Concesus of AMD PSP security issue?


There's been a lot of talk lately about CPU vulnerabilities ala Meltown
but what is the general consensus with the obvious built in back doors
being put into CPU's at the OEM level.


AMD Platform Security Processor/Trust Zone Secure Technology which is
AMD's version of Intel AMT/Intel Management Engine/vPro

The processor within a processor with it's own unknown closed source OS
that has access to literally all functions of the system. I don't think
AMD currently has an equivalent to Intels vPro which is the 3G chips in
the CPU that can receive secret forced updates, access to the TCP/IP
stack even before the OS is booted, etc...

In any case there was a lot of talk surrounding this as this is ripe for
potential exploits/vulnerabilities/back doors and there's almost nothing
we can do to prevent them/stop them nor do we even really understand the
full ramifications.

I recall seeing some attempts at getting AMD to release the code open
source, there was various petitions, etc, and then everything died out.

So what's been the consensus on this issue? Has there been any
advancements in getting the code open sourced or at the very least being
able to disable it? I gather I heard a few mobo makers added the option
to disable AMD PSP in BIOS updates, I don't think it's come to mine yet
nor does it seem to be something widespread.