Re:“Intel Core 2 bugs will assuredly be exploitable from use...
by yetanother1980 on Friday January 05, 2018 @10:52AM
(#16079315)
If they run patched OS versions that don't use the hardware features they achieve this goal.
Re:“Intel Core 2 bugs will assuredly be exploitable from use...
by Chaebixi on Friday January 05, 2018 @01:00PM
(#16080247)
> (where "other team" includes the citizens of the US apparently).
Not really. It's not like stuff like that Dual_EC_DRBG were export only, and IIRC, they did hold on to zero days that would affect American systems, leaving those system vulnerable, while they exploited them elsewhere.
Their mission isn't to make everything less secure, it's to make the other team's stuff less secure (where "other team" includes the citizens of the US apparently).
Furthermore, given the number of bugs in just about every piece of software (including kernels), I don't think these bugs are even an anomaly that needs an explanation. Bugs exist in every complex system, and CPUs are very complex these days.
That said, to address your direct question of "would it be possible", I'm fairly sure it would; we have hints from Linus that Three Letter Agencies have asked him for backdoors, so I'm sure large hardware companies have open channels with the NSA et. al. as well.