linux-kernel - Re: [RFC v3][PATCH 2/2] intel_txt: Intel(R) TXT and tboot kernel support

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Date:	Sun, 24 May 2009 21:42:45 +0200
From:	Pavel Machek <pavel@....cz>
To:	Theodore Tso <tytso@....edu>,
	"Cihula, Joseph" <joseph.cihula@...el.com>,
	James Morris <jmorris@...ei.org>,
	"linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	"mingo@...e.hu" <mingo@...e.hu>,
	"arjan@...ux.intel.com" <arjan@...ux.intel.com>,
	"hpa@...or.com" <hpa@...or.com>,
	"andi@...stfloor.org" <andi@...stfloor.org>,
	"chrisw@...s-sol.org" <chrisw@...s-sol.org>,
	"jbeulich@...ell.com" <jbeulich@...ell.com>,
	"peterm@...hat.com" <peterm@...hat.com>,
	"Wei, Gang" <gang.wei@...el.com>,
	"Wang, Shane" <shane.wang@...el.com>, John Gilmore <gnu@...d.com>
Subject: Re: [RFC v3][PATCH 2/2] intel_txt: Intel(R) TXT and tboot kernel
	support

Hi!

> With TXT, however, all of these problems go away.  What you end up
> booting is completely under "Circit City's DIVX's" control, and may
> include a miniature Windows environment running in the trusted
> environment; it could then take over a portion of the screen for the
> video output, and the hardware would have special features set up to
> prevent the host OS from having any access to the video output of the
> movie player running in the TXT environment.  (This was how Intel
> presented the LaGrande technology to the Kernel Summit several years
> ago, and I assume the capabilities of TXT hasn't change significantly
> since then.)

How does this interact with keyboard handling?

> Essentially, it's hard for me to think up situations where the TCPA
> chip would not be sufficient in terms of being a solution to a
> security problem that has the user's best interests at heart, rather
> than that of Hollywood, and where TXT would be a such a solution.
> Medical records are perhaps the best example I can come up with; and
> maybe some kind of bank security system where you're only allowed to
> engage in on-line banking if you run a bank-supplied application in
> the TXT environment.  However, it's hard for me to believe banks and
> hospitals will invest in solutions that implement these sorts of
> benign solutions, and it's all too easy for me to believe that
> Hollywood will invest in these sorts of solutions.

I suspect it does not 'protect' keyboard at all, meaning it is only
useful for drm.
> The bottom line is it this is a social problem, not a technical
> problem, and probably needs to be solved by social means (i.e., an
> FSF-led boycott).  But from a technical point of view, I would be
> shocked if the first major user of the TXT technology *wasn't* to
> provide DRM enforcement of one kind or another.

I see not merging / dropping changes only useful for drm from linux
kernelas a valid 'social means'...
								Pavel

-- 
(english) http://www.livejournal.com/~pavelmachek
(cesky, pictures) http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~pavel/picture/horses/blog.html
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