It's totally crazy that we have to go through Microsoft to sign things to be able to have our OS run on third parties computers, and that Microsoft manage to win about this so easily as it was never seriously challenged.
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Microsoft showed they can semi-competently run a PKI. The end.
Now had the Linux folks stepped up to the plate early on, instead of childishly acting like Secure Boot was the computing antichrist, the story might be different. But they didn't. We only have shim because some people at Red Hat had the common sense to play ball.
I'd love to know if my machine has been compromised with early boot stage "meta-hypervisor" or not.
the promise of secure boot and trusted computing is backdoor-free boot.
what is in your eyes evil and garbage about that?
"My computer was compromised with an early boot stage hypervisor backdoor" happens basically never. It's an attack vector that exists almost entirely in the minds of infosec fucktards.
"My brand new device ships with vendor-selected boot certificates that can't be changed, can't be overridden, and control what software I can install onto my own device" happens with every other smartphone, gaming console, car, and even some PCs.
"Trusted Computing" is, and always was, about making sure that the user doesn't actually own his device. This is the real, tangible attack vector - and the target of this attack is user freedom and choice.
Cert authorities, just like in case of SSL. Is SSL also an evil technology designed to take away freedom from the internet?
> vendor-selected boot certificates that can't be changed
That's a lie. Certain drivers are signed with a specific key, and they can only be used when this key is installed, which makes sense. The same thing happens with SSL - if you remove pre-installed CA certs from your device, HTTPS sites will stop working. However, nothing is stopping you from adding your own keys to the system and signing your own software with it.
> happens with every other smartphone, gaming console, car, and even some PCs
How often are you trying to install custom drivers on a smartphone, console or car? Why would you have secure boot issues on those?
> the target of this attack is user freedom and choice.
Which is exactly why users have the freedom and choice to just disable Secure Boot?
If it were not for Let's Encrypt, YES!
Secure boot would not be a problem if it were trivial to enroll keys. Give me a big message like:
"The OS you are trying to run is signed by an unknown key
sha256:whateverthefuck
IF YOU ARE NOT RUNNING AN INSTALLER YOU ARE MOST LIKELY CURRENTLY BEING ATTACKED AND SHOULD NOT PROCEED.
If you are running an installer VERIFY THE KEY with the one your OS vendor gave you.
Proceed? (Add the key as trusted)
yes NO"
Not saying all of the web should switch to that while keeping everything else the same, but in some contexts it is just nice to use something simpler, as long as the risks are known to users.