p2pnet - rss feed: No backdoors for Vista
p2p news / p2pnet: When Microsoft’s Windows Vista appears later this year, it’ll mean more computer files being encrypted, said a recent BBC report, quoting Cambridge professor Ross Anderson who was urging the UK government to think about, “back door” ways of getting around the encryptions.
The Beeb suggested Bill and the Boyz are working with governments to create a back door so BitLocker-encrypted data can always be accessed.
But, “Over my dead body,” posts Microsoft developer and cryptographer Niels Ferguson in the MS System Integrity Team blog, going on:
“Well, maybe not literally - I’m not ready to be a martyr quite yet - but certainly not in any product I work on. And I’m not alone in that sentiment. The official line from high up is that we do not create back doors. And in the unlikely situation that we are forced to by law we’ll either announce it publicly or withdraw the entire feature. Back doors are simply not acceptable. Besides, they wouldn’t find anybody on this team willing to implement and test the back door.
“We are of course talking to various governments; we want them to buy Vista and use BitLocker for their own security. We get the typical questions you always get: ease of use, performance, security, etc. We also get questions from law enforcement organizations. They foresee that they will want to read BitLocker-encrypted data, and they want to be prepared.
“Like any security technology BitLocker has its avenues of attack and law enforcement should know about them. For example, if they search a house and find a computer, they should also take all USB thumb drives, as these might contain a BitLocker key. This information is not secret; our users need to have the same information when they make the security vs. convenience tradeoff of choosing a key-protection option (TPM only, USB key, TPM + USB key, etc.) We plan on having a KB article with the details when Vista ships.”
Also See:
encrypted - MS Vista security concerns, February 15, 2006
blog - Back-door nonsense , March 2, 2006
March 6th, 2006 at 3:23 pm
Not that there has to be one intentionally, a cracker is bound to find one within the first week of Vista’s launch.
March 6th, 2006 at 5:29 pm
“Over my dead body,” posts Microsoft developer and cryptographer Niels Ferguson.
NSA reply, “That can be arranged…”
March 6th, 2006 at 10:57 pm
Very nice article on the vista operating system, but
The real problem is that Microsoft and other members of the
trusted computing group have already put this stuff in motherboards,CPU’s,and hard drives.
and that wont be the end.
Video display cards, sound cards, Ethernet cards, that won’t work because a digital flag is set, or worse, all of your media files erased.
Why? Because the copyright holder remotely erased it, along with
the software that you can”t prove to them that you bought.
Remember that a trusted computer to the corporations is one that they control,Not the user.
Want to know more?
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/can-you-trust.html
http://www.lafkon.net/tc/
March 7th, 2006 at 6:29 am
Was I the only one who laughed my ass of when XP was released with “Remote Assistance”? I stood in front of my tv when they announced it on TechTV laughing because they built in a trojan to their own system.
March 7th, 2006 at 6:50 pm
So all we have to do is trust that Microsoft is:
a) Telling us the truth
b) Capable of programming BitLocker properly
I suppose the answer to both those questions depends on your opinion of Microsoft.
March 8th, 2006 at 1:38 pm
The scariest thing is not Microsofts version of TPM. It could be in NICs… TPM seems to be the ultimate DOS
March 9th, 2006 at 12:19 am
“640k ought to be enough for anyone” Nuff said…