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    The Dangers of Microsoft Pluton

    (gabrielsieben.tech)
    733 points gjsman-1000 | 11 comments | 26 Jul 22 03:46 UTC | HN request time: 0.833s | source | bottom
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    Gh0stRAT ◴[26 Jul 22 06:26 UTC] No.32235028[source]▶
    I'm completely missing how his example of a Word document that can only be opened by approved users on approved hardware within the corporation is supposed to be a bad thing.

    Honestly, that sounds pretty fantastic. I've been using 3rd party tools/extensions to do this sort of thing in corporate and government environments for years, but having the attestation go all the way down to the hardware level is a big value-add, especially with so much ransomware/spyware/extortion/espionage going on these days.

    Can someone please explain to me how the author might see this level of security as a bad thing?

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    ftyhbhyjnjk ◴[26 Jul 22 06:39 UTC] No.32235120[source]▶
    What you can install on YOUR pc will be at the sole mercy of microsoft/or maybe someone else.... That's the cusp of it. Not that it can be used for good, but that it sets the way for heavy misuse by large corporations.

    Wait a few years. Smaller companies won't even be allowed to order high end cpu's. You'll be at 100% mercy of these corporations.

    If after 2 years they decide to brick your pc, they'll just do it. You think government will help you out here? Lol...

    replies(4): >>32235226 #>>32235674 #>>32236926 #>>32240490 #
    1. dx034 ◴[26 Jul 22 11:37 UTC] No.32236926[source]▶
    Secure chips like this are already in all devices but PCs. And in none of these areas has any of that happened. Quite the opposite, Apple got a fine when they slowed down older devices to save battery (at least what they said).

    So the government will clearly help out here. And none of these companies has an incentives to stop sales to smaller companies, they make a lot of money with those.

    replies(5): >>32236940 #>>32236991 #>>32237137 #>>32237227 #>>32240323 #
    2. fsflover ◴[26 Jul 22 11:40 UTC] No.32236940[source]▶
    > Quite the opposite, Apple got a fine when they slowed down older devices to save battery

    But the devices were actually slowed down, so the danger is real.

    replies(1): >>32237185 #
    3. autoexec ◴[26 Jul 22 11:47 UTC] No.32236991[source]▶
    > Secure chips like this are already in all devices but PCs. And in none of these areas has any of that happened.

    Ah, that must be why we all have root access and can freely modify or install anything we want on every device we own! Oh, wait, we don't have those things and our non-PC systems are increasingly locked down and routinely do things against the wishes of the people who own them.

    4. hyperdimension ◴[26 Jul 22 12:04 UTC] No.32237137[source]▶
    > So the government will clearly help out here.

    I...don't share your optimism, to put it lightly.

    5. dx034 ◴[26 Jul 22 12:09 UTC] No.32237185[source]▶
    And Apple had to revert it and got punished for it. What more do you want?
    replies(1): >>32237320 #
    6. _abox ◴[26 Jul 22 12:14 UTC] No.32237227[source]▶
    Try to install a BitTorrent client on your iphone, or a game emulator, a sexually explicit game or even a browser with a different engine.

    All this has already happened since 2008 when the app store came out.

    replies(2): >>32240296 #>>32256613 #
    7. fsflover ◴[26 Jul 22 12:23 UTC] No.32237320{3}[source]▶
    Good laws should prevent crimes, not just punish for committing them.
    8. reedjosh ◴[26 Jul 22 16:19 UTC] No.32240296[source]▶
    But you could work around it at the software level.

    With this tech stack, you wouldn't be able to.

    replies(1): >>32240947 #
    9. reedjosh ◴[26 Jul 22 16:21 UTC] No.32240323[source]▶
    > So the government will clearly help out here.

    The government is probably part of the driving factor in building this system.

    The government probably doesn't want Wikileaks type material to be rendered. There are _so_ many ways the government likely wants to abuse this.

    10. _abox ◴[26 Jul 22 17:06 UTC] No.32240947{3}[source]▶
    Work around how? As a developer?

    I'm sure there will be developer options for this too. After all, Microsoft is not going to make all the software themselves.

    But they could restrict this too. For a lot of platforms you now have to sign up for a developer account and license agreement. Like on iOS, Oculus Quest..

    11. lossolo ◴[27 Jul 22 20:40 UTC] No.32256613[source]▶
    Soon you will be able to do it in EU, thanks to government.