this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2024
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Hmm.
It does mean that any secondhand computer or CPU (or even CPU from a sketchy source) could be compromised prior to being physically sold.
I have worried a bit before about the physical supply chain. Consider this case, earlier in the year, about someone selling counterfeit Cisco hardware (not intending to compromise computers, just make a buck):
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/leader-massive-scheme-traffic-fraudulent-and-counterfeit-cisco-networking-equipment
I remember that that hardware made it into even Cisco's own authorized partners' inventory.
And that's not something that's gonna be far up in the supply chain. People don't build Cisco hardware into a lot of other products.
So you gotta wonder what can happen if someone has a good way to undetectably compromise CPUs and insert them into the supply chain.
Unless I'm mistaken, the malware isn't on the CPU. The exploit is CPU, but the firmware is stored on the bios chip. Used motherboards are a potential for having malware on them, but then again they always have been a risk