Re: cold boot attacks on cgd?
"Steven M. Bellovin" <[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | gmane.os.netbsd.devel.crypto |
|---|---|
| Organization | Columbia University |
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
On Tue, 26 Feb 2008 02:02:59 +0000 "Steven M. Bellovin" <[email protected]> wrote: > > There is apparently some BIOS magic that can be done to force certain > sections of RAM to be zeroed by the BIOS at boot time. I don't know > anything more about how to set that flag. Even if it is set, there's > no defense against someone chilling the RAM, removing it from your > machine, and putting it into their own. > It's called the MOR bit in the TPM. See http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/library/d2ff5c4e-4a68-4fd3-81d1-665e95a59dd91033.mspx?mfr=true It means "there are keys present; zero RAM when booting". This does nothing against the guy with the Dewar flask of liquid nitrogen, of course. Also, not all BIOSes honor this bit -- which means they're non-conforming, but what else is new? --Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb