How Secure Are RISC-V Chips?

Re:How Secure Are RISC-V Chips? by rhn_mk1 on Sunday January 08, 2023 @08:51AM (#34299082)

> Computer architecture and computer security researchers have worked with closed licensing ISAs for years and it hasn't stopped them finding issues.

I think this is kind of backwards. You want people to have access and find issues, so that you can correct them. Opening the ISA solves one half of this problem: access and finding.

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Re:How Secure Are RISC-V Chips? by ribit on Sunday January 08, 2023 @08:54AM (#34299102)

Why is open ISA better in respect to this than simply documented ISA? Is this about public availability of reference implementations or some sort of validation tools?

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Re:How Secure Are RISC-V Chips? by SanjayMehta on Sunday January 08, 2023 @09:08AM (#34299191)

An open ISA merely allows anyone to implement their own core without worrying about getting sued.

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Re:How Secure Are RISC-V Chips? by gchadwick on Sunday January 08, 2023 @08:55AM (#34299112)

Well take arm and x86, plenty of research papers done on these (e.g. the original speculative execution attacks) but they are closed licensing.

Were the ISA specifications also fully closed (i.e. no reading without an NDA, strict restrictions on any published research even if you did get access etc), then yes that would be an impediment, but practically that's not what we see.

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