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by davideous 3688 days ago
Yes, it would technically meet the Open Source Initiative's definition (https://opensource.org/osd), but if there was no way to re-flash the device, no way to verify the binary on the device, or possibly even no way build a binary (which may require proprietary tools under NDA from the chip manufacturer) -- I think a lot of critics would still be critics, but I could be wrong.

If Yubico did this it would be very interesting to see the reaction.

2 comments

It would allow a third party to discover a vulnerability similar to the one in the Neo just by just reading the code.
The general issue is when all hardware has software in, in the end it has to be open source. Going even further: The distinction between hardware, firmware, and software is logically irrelevant in terms of trust.