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by rwmj 4 hours ago
AMD (and Intel and everyone else) processors already have an HSM inside for confidential computing so use that? I would hope the HSM isn't as badly implemented as this update mechanism, but then again ...
3 comments

AMD Software Engineers giving AMD Stupid Gaming Accessory Software Engineers access to a signing system backed by PSP seems like a much worse outcome than trusting HTTPS, really. Like, there are definitely intelligent and secure ways to do this, but this one in particular is overkill with a huge blast radius when it is (invariably) done incorrectly.
Those have been broken again and again. Even if not, how do you distribute the public keys for it, how do you bootstrap that trust?
Confidential computing is a whole thing with a key in each processor and a chain of trust and a way to remotely attest that your software is running in a secure enclave. All the vendors do it differently (sadly) but it's very much a solved problem.
There was a time when RDRAND on Zen gave all zeroes, or something, so eh...

I'm happy enough with TLS introduced: knowing the server I'm reaching for updates is actually 'amd.com'. Signatures would be nice, sure, but I wouldn't consider them nearly as critical or useful until now. Before we get too caught up in signatures, however, I'd like to see their new/improved updater actually take precedence.

As things stand, I'm not sure key rotation would go well... the updater doesn't mind itself, apparently.