Intel's 12th-gen Alder Lake processors will not include Microsoft's Pluton security

Microsoft's attempt to put its homegrown Pluton security processor architecture into third-party Windows 11 PCs is right now more work-in-progress than the slam dunk its publicity would have you believe. Pluton is the software giant's move to define a level of security that should be baked into microprocessors that run its …

[Pascal Monett]

I like it when Borkzilla comments on the effect of its projects on Linux

It can't even guarantee the effect of its updates on its own OS, but we're supposed to believe that Pluton will have no effect on a Linux distro.

I'll be scouting for the fallout on that.

[Anonymous Coward]

What (exactly) is in the next CPU chip that I get in my next computer?

Is there anyone (independent and reliable) out there auditing chip functionality?

Things to think about:

(1) Historic suggestions that CISCO equipment contains backdoors.

(2) Intel shipping a complete Minix OS in silicon on x86 chips

(3) Intel stating that future chips will have "pay to enhance" functionality

(4) Microsoft's historic stance on marketing (see below)

So some of us wonder if THIRD PARTIES are capable of switching on "enhanced functionality" on the CPU I just bought.

So some of us wonder if THIRD PARTIES are capable of switching OFF functionality on the CPU I just bought.

Quote (William Burroughs): "The paranoid is a person who knows a little of what is going on."

Quote (James Plamondon, Microsoft, January 2000) Evangelism is War: http://antitrust.slated.org/www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/3000/PX03096.pdf

[Robert Grant]

Re: What (exactly) is in the next CPU chip that I get in my next computer?

I was just thinking about (2) - how much of the world's power is devoted to powering an OS almost no-one knows about?

[whitepines]

Re: What (exactly) is in the next CPU chip that I get in my next computer?

Good points, and unfortunately getting away from these embedded menaces now requires leaving x86 entirely (thanks AMD for selling out!).

Currently typing from a Talos II, which I really like but is rather costly to buy. Would otherwise be typing from an Asus C201. Rather tired of US corporations stealing everyone's data, and now trying to dictate how people can or cannot even use their own computers.

What I am most concerned about is the lack of outcry on this new power grab. Back in the day Pluton and its ilk would have caused mass boycotts, has the frog been thoroughly boiled now and people don't care?

[NoneSuch]

No, Just NO!

Microsoft can keep the F off my hardware thank you very much.

[DS999]

Re: No, Just NO!

Intel is putting TPM in them instead, which has been shown to have multiple security holes in recent years, making it likely there are more to be found.

At least Pluton hasn't had a publicly known exploit yet. Yet...

[Charles 9]

Re: No, Just NO!

I figure you're screwed no matter where you turn. Countries can control what's allowed in the local hardware, after all, especially if communications are involved (countries often have control of communications systems and definitely control the airwaves as a limited resource). It's basically a matter of whether or not they're bothering to use lube.

Put it this way. If they can't pwn you on the CPU, they'll just use another essential chip somewhere in the design that you have less or no control over (because of the aforementioned).

[Charlie Spalton]

A familiar name here:

Wasn’t there an old episode of Battlestar Galactica where they found that a lot of their stored food was useless thanks to “Pluton poisoning”?