Can mainboard hardware back doors be found and defeated?
About computer hardware back doors, if you have the knowledge would you clarify?
In a video the pretty easy privacy person says, in a computer manufactured in china china takes care of hardware backdoors and us agencies of sofware back doors. At the same time somewhere I read, that if a computer mainboard has uefi and tpm, which are chips?, then it is not a problem to install new software on them and that way defeat back doors if they were present. Lets say there was a free hardware mainboard made in china and available for consumers to buy. Would it be possible to ensure that no hardware back doors were part of the mainboard and to defeat them if present?
It may not be part of the same matter, but in a video stallman says, if there is hardware devices on a mainboard that are not free software compatible, then do not install the software they require and use the mainboard without them.
A TPM is a chip but it won't protect you against hardware or firmware backdoors.
Here's one presentation that might keep you awake at night https://www.blackhat.com/html/bh-us-12/bh-us-12-archives.html#Brossard
I don't know if or how hardware backdoors can be defeated.
"Treacherous computing" through those chips is losing control of the hardware (which trusts its real owner, no th user): https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/can-you-trust.html
Any program needs a backport to communicate; example: updates, antivirus, etc, etc. The best mute pc is the one, that has no connection to any source of, such as the web browser, nickcards, WiFi, bluetooth. etc. and it is just for data entry, nothing more. That is the only way too defeat spying and backport activity. We call them "dumb terminal."
If you are talking about controlling, the backports either hardware or software, I hope you are that you good in reading binary code, able to modify and examine, It all starts, in the Bios firmware, harware, Processor and communication devices. Some technologies that allows you to format bios architecture, could be used in some old motherboards not all of them. I haven't heard of anyone formatting any processor, yet but to add hardware firewalls is another issue.
This is just my opinion.
"Dumb terminal" do not do their own processing. They just forward the inputs to a "main computer" to which they are attached and wait for the response to display. How would that be defeating spying? The attacker has a easier task: she now only needs to spy on the main computers.
It would be like saying that using phones defeats spying because, contrary to walkie-talkies, all communications are routed to central computers.
Magic
You are right, but what I ment to said a "dumb terminal" is when not connected to anything... Just sitting there for one purpose,only Data entry.
Here is the better definition of dumb terminal:
dumb Terminal Definition
A dumb terminal is a computer terminal that consists mostly of just a display monitor and a keyboard (and perhaps a mouse as well). It has no internal CPU (central processing unit), and thus has little or no processing power. Likewise, there is no hard disk drive (HDD).
A terminal is a device that allows communications with a computer. Dumb terminals are connected to a network that includes one or more servers, which are computers with sufficient processing power to run any application programs that are being accessed through the dumb terminals.
Dumb terminals were sometimes called glass teletypes because they were similar to teletype machines to which display monitors (whose front surfaces are made from glass) were added. Also referred to as a teletypewriter and given the acronym TTY, a teletype machine is a now generally obsolete electro-mechanical typewriter that was widely used to communicate typed messages from point to point through a simple electrical communications channel. Teletypewriters were also used as the first computer terminals.
The terms smart terminal, network computer and thin client are sometimes used to refer to enhanced dumb terminals that provide additional resources to perform local editing and simple processing. That is, they have some processing power, but they still rely on servers in the network for much or most of their processing and their access to application programs. They likewise boot from a server in the network. Booting refers to installing the operating system into the memory of the terminal.
Many businesses and other organizations favored networks of dumb terminals because they could provide a single operating system with a single version of software running on it for all users. As they have no moving parts (other than the keys on the keyboard) that can break down or lose data, dumb terminals can provide greater virus resistance and data security as compared with full-fledged personal computers, and they can be more reliable. They are also quiet, easy-to-deploy, and simple to manage remotely. However, some users did not like their restricted ability to control the processing of information on such systems.
In contrast to earlier dumb-terminals, today's thin clients provide much more user-friendly displays, including multiple windows, web browsing and other features of conventional personal computers.
Dumb terminals were produced by a number of major companies in the 1970s and early 1980s, including DEC, Heath, IBM, Lear-Siegler, Televideo and Wyse. However, the rapid drop in the cost and increase in the power of personal computers made it more economical for businesses to use them in place of dedicated dumb terminals. It is very easy to configure personal computers so that they can emulate dumb terminals, thin clients, or terminals with any desired level of intelligence.
Magic Banana
I own a relic vietnam era american Walkie talkie, the AN/PRC-6, it is a monster in weight and size, all analog,....
operates using wide-band FM on a single crystal controlled frequency in the 47 to 55.4 MHz low band VHF band.[1] Rated power output is about 250 mW. The range is about one mile, but much less in jungle.
tonlee
The best and most clever way to this is using countermeasures that monitor your PC activity.
It was about a chinese manufacturer that sells a computer and says all software is open source or free software. Can he hide a hardware back door that is not detectable?