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36C3 - Uncover, Understand, Own - Regaining Control Over Your AMD CPU

media.ccc.de · 22.6K views · 2019-12-28 · 56:37

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Overview

A 36C3 talk on the AMD Platform Security Processor, an undocumented ARM core inside AMD CPUs that runs before the main processor. The speakers present their reverse engineering of its internals.

On Hacker News

Cited in discussions of open firmware and trust as a thorough reverse engineering of the PSP.

Recommended by 1 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2019–2021

Topics

Security & hackingComputer architecture & CPUsPrivacy, surveillance & cybercrime
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amd pspreverse engineeringfirmwaresecurityccc

What people said

TobTobXX · 2021-09 · Strong recommendation

There's this great talk from a CCC about reverse engeneering the PSP: Uncover, Understand, Own - Regaining Control Over Your AMD CPU [VIDEO] At 47:10, they mention that they haven't found anything evil. Ofc, this isn't hard proof, but if I trust anyone's answer, then it's theirs. (Btw, watch the whole talk, it's nothing short of incredible.)

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TobTobXX · 2021-09 · Recommendation

There's this great talk from a CCC about reverse engeneering the PSP: Uncover, Understand, Own - Regaining Control Over Your AMD CPU [VIDEO] At 47:10, they mention that they haven't found anything evil. Ofc, this isn't hard proof, but if I trust anyone's answer, then it's theirs. I think the likelihood of it being malicious is nonzero, but small enough that I'd condemn active backdoors into the realm of conspiracy theories. There's always the possibility of it being exploited by others, but c'mon: Basically ANY other exploit would be way easier to distribute and activate than one in the PSP.

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garaetjjte · 2021-09 · Reference

That's switch for TPM features only. You cannot disable PSP as it is responsible for x86 initialization. [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by media.ccc.de, played through YouTube.

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