| > If you have a device you don't trust, don't allow it on your network... That's what I do. That means large swaths of potentially interesting "smart" devices are unavailable to me (since they won't work without Internet access and I'm unable to inspect their traffic). I'm not too heartbroken about it, but it does make me a little sad that I don't get to use some of this "we're living in the future" tech. > ...devices are right to not allow MITMing their traffic and to treat that as a security hole... > ...a security hole you can use for jailbreaking is also a security hole that could potentially be exploited by malware... Yes. Complete agreement. Devices are right not to allow unauthorized parties to MiTM their traffic, tinker w/ their innards, etc. I would never suggest otherwise. Owners, with physical access, should be permitted to MITM the traffic, tinker with the innards, etc. They're authorized parties. Device manufacturers should compelled by regulation to allow device owners, with physical access, to examine and manipulate the device internals. I'm thinking of the "developer mode" physical switches on Chromebook devices. If I own it I should have the same access to the device the manufacturer does. If a manufacturer's business / security model isn't compatible with this regulation the manufacturer should be required to deal with any e-waste concerns and it should clearly be marketed as a rental and not a sale. None of this will ever happen. I know I'm tiling at windmills. The tech world will continue to get more locked-down, the public will lose unfettered access to general purpose computers, and the personal computer revolution will become a distant memory. We already lost and could never really win because "normies" don't care about this stuff. |
I would be generally in favor of this. I don't like the idea of forbidding building a device that's locked down; there are potential use cases for such a thing. I do like the idea of saying "either allow tinkering or you are subject to numerous other things, like warranty / liability laws".