[Cryptography] GHCQ Penetration of Belgacom

dan at geer.org dan at geer.org
Fri Dec 19 22:59:24 EST 2014


 | I think it would be very hard to find a backdoor suggested by 
 | Norm Hardy. Modify the CPU to detect when two specific floating 
 | point numbers are multiplied. When they are, execute the next 
 | instruction in privileged mode.


It's my second-hand understanding that it would take perhaps 3,000
gates to implement intentional sensitivity to a pre-designed kill
packet.  The addition of 3,000 gates to any current chipset will
never be found in current hardware, e.g., the iPhone 6 has two
billion transistors on the system chip.

Others more knowledgeable welcome to correct my understanding.

--dan



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