[Cryptography] [IP] 'We cannot trust' Intel and Via's chip-based crypto, FreeBSD developers say

[Jerry Leichter]

On Dec 23, 2013, at 9:01 AM, dan at geer.org wrote:
> There must be a {rule of thumb, nomogram, proportionality constant}
> relating the build-up of complexity and the build-up of occult risk,
> mustn't there?  Machines beat human chess (and other game) players
> not by being smarter but by grinding a solution out.  One wonders
> if AI doesn't eventually have the power to find back doors that no
> human could ever find.
I hadn't thought about it in those terms, but I think it's a solid bet that someone's working on that.  Chip design is already very heavily dependent on rule checking and all kinds of analysis.  And everyone is trying to reverse-engineer everyone else's designs.  All the underpinnings are there.  And various parts of the US military and security establishment are quite aware - have, in fact, talked publicly about - the problem of "spiked" chips making it into their supply chains.

>  Then what?
Yet another arms race.
                                                        -- Jerry

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