On 29.05.2008 20:56, Peter_22@xxxxxx wrote: > - to make use of semiconductor physics, key material would have to be stored on highly volatile level 1/2 CPU cache I thought about this after writing the other mail. I don't think the CPU kills it's cache after a reset. Or at least "only" marks it as invalid. So if i assume that the jumper on the reset-connector works: Then the CPU isn't able to do anything while under permenant reset. While the CPU is under permanent reset it should be possible to replace the BIOS-chip with someting of the attackers choosing. When the jumper is removed the now BIOS should be the next thing that the CPU executes. If i now assume that it is somehow possible to dump the CPU cache contents you can dump pretty much anything there is. Conclusion: An attacker with enough resources should be able to get the whole memory contents with no or virtually no losses. Bis denn -- Real Programmers consider "what you see is what you get" to be just as bad a concept in Text Editors as it is in women. No, the Real Programmer wants a "you asked for it, you got it" text editor -- complicated, cryptic, powerful, unforgiving, dangerous. - Linux-crypto: cryptography in and on the Linux system Archive: http://mail.nl.linux.org/linux-crypto/
