RE: Intel Pentium III security `bug'

[Mike Johnson <mike johnson GSC GTE COM>]

At 08:10 PM 1/29/99 +1300, you wrote:
>It's not a "bug" but a Processer Unique Identification Number. It will be
>readable at the application level, but Intel says it will ship processors
>with PUIN readability disabled by default. I expect there will be a BIOS
>option for this too.

A few things bother be about the huge hub-bub about all this.  First, if the
OS doesn't implement the call to the PUID, exactly -how- is the PUID going
to get out of your computer?  CPU's don't implement TCP/IP stacks, last time
I checked.  Hell, CPU's know -nothing- about networking.  You can pretty
well rest assured that -if- Linux -ever- supported the PUID, that said
support would -easily- be disabled, regardles of what Intel does.  Second,
why hasn't anyone ever thrown a fit about Sun's node-ids?  Granted, Solaris
never transmits this -unique- id to the world, but it is used like crazy
for software licensing (*pause for brief moments of agitation*), which was
one of the applications for the PUID.

All that said, I may end up avoiding Intel anyways.  I'm rather happy with
my Alpha install.  Maybe I'll just go get a faster one.  Of course, there's
also AMD chips.  

>Regards,
>
>--Juha

Mike

--
Mike Johnson - mike johnson gsc gte com
Network Engineer - Prototype Development
GTE Government Systems - All opinions are mine, not GTE's.