Replace Your Exploit-Ridden Firmware with Linux - Ronald Minnich, Google

Why HN readers recommended it

Recommended as the go-to talk on firmware security risks, Intel ME, and why replacing UEFI with Linux speeds up and hardens boot.

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel

The Linux Foundation

Topic

firmware security

Format

talk

Level

advanced

HN recommenders in dataset

6

HN mentions in dataset

12

Recommendation years in dataset

2017–2023

These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.

From the original HN conversations

Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.

• Absolutely fantastic video from a google engineer (and the original author of LinuxBios / Coreboot) on how they replaced the UEFI firmware with Linux to get Dell servers to boot in 20 seconds: [VIDEO]

• Intel CSME (formerly ME) and AMT ST (formerly PSP) have many properties that are / would be desireable for someone who is/was building a backdoor (DMA, TCP/IP stack that can use onboard ethernet without the host OS being aware, closed source, unremovable, etc). Keep in …

• I first heard the Minix thing in this talk: [VIDEO] which I found, I think via a HN thread. Anyway, most of the articles rehash this talk and IMO its a solid 30 minute investment.