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   kline 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (kline@mastodon.sdf.org)'s status on Saturday, 03-Feb-2024 23:51:04 JST kline 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

   • [74][166]
   • Ubergeek

   Ok - the chains that bind us, TPM, and a-moral software.

   I strongly believe that software, as much as possible, should be without morals. I'm the same way that postgis can be used for humanitarian disasters, it can also be used to build surveillance databases. The same crypto that allows us to talk privately and with confidence in our partner can be used to sign firmware to prevent user control. @Mae @ubergeek

   • Embed this notice
     kline 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (kline@mastodon.sdf.org)'s status on Saturday, 03-Feb-2024 23:51:03 JST kline 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

     in reply to

     • [74][166]
     • Ubergeek

     @Mae @ubergeek it's a difficult field to navigate, and there are definitely instances that are really fucking horrible, where free software can be used to abuse and oppress both users and bystanders. I don't think this makes that those foundational technologies like databases or TPMs inherently a bad thing, but we do need to ensure they're free - for any purpose - and to absolutely stop at the social (moral, even!) level from the abuse of such tools.

     Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: likes this.
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     kline 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (kline@mastodon.sdf.org)'s status on Saturday, 03-Feb-2024 23:51:59 JST kline 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

     in reply to

     • [74][166]
     • Ubergeek

     @Mae @ubergeek the TPM specifically has a further major issue: that of being non-free hardware (and associated firmware). But instead of throwing away the good bits, we should instead drive at making it free - a RISCV TPM with free firmware? This is would be an amazing outcome.
     TPMs are good concepts - secure enclaves that are less attackable. Even if you need to comply or even give your laptop/hdd over, attackers will never be able to extract your privkey from it, and that's a good thing.

     Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: likes this.