Is it so difficult to find that money ???

Story: No Microsoft certificate support in Linux kernel says TorvaldsTotal Replies: 12
Author Content
henke54

Feb 27, 2013
4:35 AM EDT
Quoting:The issue of why the Linux ecosystem does not set up its own infrastructure for signing (Linux) operating systems has also once again been raised. This particular issue comes down to cost – according to Greg Kroah-Hartman, setting up and running such an infrastructure would almost certainly cost more than the Linux Foundation's entire annual budget.
Why is it so difficult for the Linux Foundation to 'convince' all those firms who 'have interest' in Linux, to raise the needed money for such 'signing infrastructure' ???
BernardSwiss

Feb 27, 2013
5:34 AM EDT
That's missing the point.

The UEFI Secure Boot system we have in place now (ie. MS Secure Boot) wasn't settled by some company or organization going around and consulting/negotiating, or paying to have it implemented. Where did you get an idea like that?

Nope! The current "Secure Boot" (sometimes referred to, only half-facetiously, as "MS Restricted Boot") was established by FIAT. Microsoft announced:

"Hey! Everybody! These are the new rules!"

"If you want to sell OEM Windows 8 Certified consumer-grade systems (hence under the official Windows 8 Logo programs and Microsoft's associated Windows 8 co-marketing support, etc.) then you will build them to comply with our official Windows 8 Hardware Certification specification -- including our "Secure Boot" specifications."

Otherwise you can try to make competitively priced, consumer products on your own, without the benefits we so generously supply to good little OEMs (including your competitors)."

"Capiche?"



Nobody in the Linux world (including not Canonical/Ubuntu) can get away with anything like that. This is not -- and never was -- about Linux entities having the money, nor about being willing to put in effort. This was just about the habitual monopoly abuser moving in at a critical, formative moment, to bend the nascent standard to its advantage.
nmset

Feb 27, 2013
9:34 AM EDT
Why is Red Hat so cool with MS ? I can't believe they just want to increase revenue, they are behaving as MS salesmen, to a point where they want to poison the Linux kernel while they can ship their own fork to their clients, they need not wish that the whole world use the kernel that suits them. There must be something else I can't catch right now. Some conspiration theory ? I want to believe !
jdixon

Feb 27, 2013
10:03 AM EDT
> Why is Red Hat so cool with MS ?

They're not. They trying to make sure they can support their customers' needs. Which means being able to install Red Hat on secure boot systems.
caitlyn

Feb 27, 2013
10:38 AM EDT
What jdixon said about Red Hat and definitely what Bernard Swiss said about how the latest attempt at vendor lock in by Microsoft came about. This has nothing at all to do with security except for securing Microsoft's rapidly disappearing monopoly.
nmset

Feb 27, 2013
11:02 AM EDT
Frankly, it's only about MS monopoly. How widespread are rootkits ? Secure boot doesn't protect agains viral attacks, Windows Achilles' heel ! The root kit here is Linux !

You are a Red Hat customer, and you are being told that you cannot load your own modules, and your kernel that you built as per your specific needs. You go around shouting proudly : "Hey guys, we are Linux users, as free as air, we build our stuff but we can't use it !"

How stupid can that be ?
jdixon

Feb 27, 2013
12:24 PM EDT
> How widespread are rootkits ?

They're getting fairly widespread, unfortunately, I've had to clean up over half a dozen tdss and zeroaccess rootkits over the past year or so.
gus3

Feb 27, 2013
3:08 PM EDT
And digital signatures don't protect against malicious code:

Certified online banking trojan in the wild
henke54

Feb 28, 2013
4:41 AM EDT
jdixon wrote:> Why is Red Hat so cool with MS ?

They're not. They trying to make sure they can support their customers' needs. Which means being able to install Red Hat on secure boot systems.
hmmmmmmmm... :
Quoting:Linux companies or organisations that have paid for, and obtained, keys from Microsoft to ensure that their distributions can be booted on secure boot-enabled devices, have to abide by the terms of a contract or else may have their keys revoked.

This much is clear from a message posted to the Linux kernel mailing list by Peter Jones, a kernel developer who works for Red Hat.

In response to a post from Linux filesystem guru Ted Ts'o about the possible revocation of keys, Jones responded: "We've got a pretty good idea - we've got a contract with them (Microsoft), and it says they provide the signing service, and under circumstances where the thing being signed is found to enable malware that circumvents Secure Boot, we'll fix it so it can't be, and we've got a certain amount of time to do so, and processes for working with them, and then at that time blacklists will be issued.
http://www.itwire.com/opinion-and-analysis/open-sauce/58903-...
henke54

Feb 28, 2013
4:46 AM EDT
>The current "Secure Boot" (sometimes referred to, only half-facetiously, as "MS Restricted Boot") was established by FIAT. Microsoft announced,

So why can't the Linux Foundation 'make another standard' ... something like M$ has done with OOXML vs ODF ???
caitlyn

Feb 28, 2013
11:47 AM EDT
Quoting:So why can't the Linux Foundation 'make another standard' ... something like M$ has done with OOXML vs ODF ???
That would be great if the Linux vendors or the Linux Foundation were large enough to get the tier one hardware vendors to deliver systems to their standards. However, since Microsoft is so much larger than all the Linux vendors put together they will kowtow to every Microsoft whim.

Please remember we are mainly talking about the desktop here. According to Forrester Research Linux grew to 9% of the corporate desktop as of last year. I'm watching us move towards a large rollout at work. This is a big deal to Microsoft because it threatens their big bread and butter business which is starting to go elsewhere. They are going to play hardball every step of the way with the vendors. Linux simply lacks the clout to get the vendors to stand up to Microsoft.
mbaehrlxer

Mar 01, 2013
5:40 PM EDT
BernardSwiss: thanks for the best summary explaining this whole mess, i have read so far.
jdixon

Mar 01, 2013
5:54 PM EDT
> ...thanks for the best summary explaining this whole mess, i have read so far.

Which, to sum up, can be phrased as Microsoft saying: Nice computer business you've got there. Be as shame if something happened to it.

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