Mailing List Archive


[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: [tlug] To Set This World On FIRE...



SCHWARTZ, Fernando G. writes:

 > I mean, please anybody out there knows how to insert some kernel
 > code that can't / won't be scrutinized? Because I want to learn how
 > to do that...

Easy to explain, hard to implement: Be very smart and go work in the
NSA's crypto algorithms division for a couple years.  Maybe it's an
urban legend, but the story is that the NSA came to the folks who were
creating the DES standard and said "please tweak the algorithm here",
and they did.  Years later, a "new" class of attacks on DES was
discovered -- and it was found that that tweak foiled them.  I have no
doubt that what the NSA can do for good, it can do for evil.

It's simply not true that to many eyes all bugs are shallow.  What is
true that having a *second* pair of eyes vastly improves the ability
to diagnose bugs, but the effect decays to zero rapidly.  And in
general, the wisdom of a group can be computed as the maximum of the
wisdoms of its members.  Increasing the number of members doesn't
necessarily increase the probability of getting very wise members: the
NSA may have already hired them and classified their wisdom.


Home | Main Index | Thread Index

Home Page Mailing List Linux and Japan TLUG Members Links