[Git][reproducible-builds/reproducible-website][master] Add the 8086/Berne announcement.

Mon Apr 1 02:09:06 CEST 2019


Daniel Shahaf pushed to branch master at Reproducible Builds / reproducible-website


Commits:
68f4b00b by Daniel Shahaf at 2019-04-01T00:03:03Z
Add the 8086/Berne announcement.

Copied from commit bd9e93651cdaa4e2960ae987d1cecf81f7fff41f in reproducible-april-fools-8086.git.

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1 changed file:

- + _posts/2019-04-01-reproducible-builds-twain-Intel-8086-audit-and-Berne-Convention-patches.md


Changes:

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_posts/2019-04-01-reproducible-builds-twain-Intel-8086-audit-and-Berne-Convention-patches.md
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+---
+layout: new/post
+title:  "Reproducible Builds Announces a Crowd-funded Intel<sup>®</sup> 8086<sup>®</sup> audit"
+date:   2019-04-01 00:00:01
+categories: org
+---
+
+<h4 style="font-weight: normal;">… and proposes a patch to the Berne Convention on Copyright Law</h4>
+
+We are excited to launch a crowd-funded audit of Intel<sup>®</sup>'s classic desktop
+computer processor, the 1978-vintage 8086<sup>®</sup>!
+
+The 8086<sup>®</sup> is the primogenitor of the ubiquitous `x86` CPU architecture, which powers
+the lion's share of desktop and server CPU's around the world.
+
+Modern `x86` CPUs power virtually all Internet servers that all of us use daily,
+from 80% of the supercomputers in [TOP500](https://www.top500.org/) to Google's data
+centers to digital information displays inside municipal buses to
+consumer-grade desktops and laptops.
+What's more, the `x86` architecture is also the platform which the software
+developers and sysadmins who design, implement, and maintain the Internet do
+their day-to-day work on.  The ubiquity and criticality of the `x86` architecture
+to the global economy cannot be understated.
+
+Those `x86` CPUs run computer programs.  The Reproducible Builds project seeks
+to make it possible to establish the provenance of runnable computer programs,
+as installed on server and customer computers, _in situ_.  That is needed to
+defend against attacks whereby Eves and Mallories try to change the code Alice
+and Bob run.  (That proves, again, that sufficiently advanced cryptography is
+indistinguishable from soap operas.)
+
+Such attacks range from the trivial [evil maid attack][evil_maid], wherein the
+attacker modifies a device that had been left unattended and unlocked, to
+sophisticated attacks such as Ken Thompson's venerable [_Reflections on
+Trusting Trust_ (RoTT)][RoTT] attack, wherein an attacker installs a
+self-propagating backdoor that cannot be detected by source inspection alone.
+
+In security, one must always have a trusted base from which to build.  Since it
+is infeasible to verify even a single binary program by hand, let alone all the
+programs installed on any single computer, when we at the Reproducible Builds
+project audit a particular runnable computer program, we do this by running
+another computer program, [`cmp(1)`][cmp].  We therefore must have a trusted
+computer on which to run `cmp(1)`; that computer will be our trusted base upon
+which we will build trust in all other computers, using techniques such as
+([Wheeler, 2009][wheeler-ddc]).
+
+However, we cannot discount the possibility that [Elvis installed a RoTT
+backdoor][Elvis_impossible] in the original 8086 [software models][HDL], before the 8086 was
+[fabricated][fabrication], and that that backdoor has propagated ever since to
+every new Intel<sup>®</sup> CPU, since Intel Corporation uses their own latest-generation
+CPU's to design the next generation ones.  Thus, in order to establish trust in
+our chosen base CPU, we must not only audit our base CPU's software models, but
+also audit the physical CPU hardware to confirm that it behaves according to
+its software models.  That is required to rule out the possibility of a
+hardware-level RoTT backdoor.
+
+<br/>
+
+Regrettably, it would be illegal to conduct said audit in an open-source manner,
+out in the open under [Justice Brandeis](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louis_Brandeis)' sunlight
+and [Linus Torvalds](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus%27s_Law)' many
+eyeballs, due to intellectual property (IP) law provisions.  Put simply, we
+cannot compare the physical chips to the software models because we cannot
+obtain the software models.  The original software models of the 8086<sup>®</sup>
+[die][die] are copyrighted by Intel Corporation, who refuse to provide their
+customers with the schematics of what they had purchased, arguing those
+schematics are a trade secret; reverse engineering those schematics from the
+physical chips is impractical for engineering reasons and might constitute a
+breach of the chips' <acronym title="End-user License Agreement">EULA</acronym>;
+and even if we were handed the schematics tomorrow,
+copyright law would prevent us from sharing them amongst ourselves without
+Intel's consent, which they are neither required nor expected to provide.
+
+Facing these legal obstacles, the Reproducible Builds project has decided to
+grab the bull by the horns and, in an [unprecedented][citation_needed] move by
+an open source project, actively work to change the law.  The Reproducible
+Builds project will pursue law changes that enable us to do our open source
+work which increases the security of end users and decreases the risk of using
+computers.  We announce, without further ado, our intention to propose changes
+to the _[Berne Convention][berne] for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works_
+aimed at finding a new and improved
+balance between the rights of authors, corporate middlemen, and end-users.
+
+<br/>
+
+Holger Levsen, a [Debian](https://www.debian.org/) developer and a long-time
+contributor to the Reproducible Builds effort, welcomes the audit effort with
+open arms.  "I have fond memories of using `x86` on my Amiga 1000 sidecar back in
+the days," says Levsen, "and I am excited that this platform is finally getting
+the thorough hardware verification it deserves."
+
+"The Berne Convention often gets in the way of my volunteer work," summarizes
+Daniel Shahaf, an [Apache Software Foundation](https://www.apache.org/) member
+emeritus and a contributor to the Reproducible Builds effort.  "I hope the
+Convention maintainers will consider our forthcoming pull request positively
+and look forward to testing the next release candidate of the Convention," he
+added.
+
+[evil_maid]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_maid_attack
+[RoTT]: https://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/linux/hh/thompson/trust.html
+[wheeler-ddc]: https://dwheeler.com/trusting-trust/dissertation/html/wheeler-trusting-trust-ddc.html
+[cmp]: https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/cmp.html
+[fabrication]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiconductor_device_fabrication
+[x86 supercomputers (2008)]: https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1008702/supercomputing-dominated-x86-architecture
+[Elvis_impossible]: https://soundcloud.com/miguel-estevan/its-impossible-elvis-cover
+[HDL]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_description_language
+[die]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_%28integrated_circuit%29
+[ICLDP]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_circuit_layout_design_protection
+[citation_needed]: https://xkcd.com/285/
+[berne]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention



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