[ablankst]

What about this exploit really requires a US supply chain? Why do you believe that the Five Eyes have fewer exploits for hardware originating from BRICS nations? Don't intelligence agencies have explicit missions to spy on those countries?

If you think that because you are running less popular hardware, that the NSA wouldn't bother obtaining exploits for them, you may be right. In that case, though, you're simply making a popularity trade-off. (And it is a trade-off, more popular hardware is more popular for a reason.)

[anonbanker]

From all documents released by snowden thus far, it is clear that the Five Eyes are targeting their own supply chains. They're using arm7 and arm9 chips in their hardware bugs, but it's clear that they have no focus at all on arm exploits.

Both the RK3xxx and A23 chips are fully supported in Linux 3.16, so I see no trade-off. Just low wattage and a bit of peace of mind that my government has to custom-tailor exploits for me and my companies, which isn't very cost-effective. :-)