Top all-time · #7548
Gabriel Sieben
Personal blog · gabrielsieben.techsecurityaipolitics
Gabriel Sieben's personal blog at gabrielsieben.tech covers security, ai and politics. Since 2020, 10 different Hacker News readers have linked it 36 times, most often “Remote Attestation is coming back”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Too few sampled comments (9) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog for arguments that TPM, Microsoft Pluton, Secure Boot and remote attestation (such as the Web Environment Integrity API) threaten user control over their own computers.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 9 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Remote Attestation is coming back6 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2022-07-29
- The Dangers of Microsoft Pluton3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-07-26
- Nintendo Switch modding is illegal in the US2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-04-17
- Sorry Purism, I’m not investing. It’s not even legal2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-05-11
What Hacker News says?
Location: St. Paul Park, MN. Remote: Yes. Willing to relocate: No. Technologies: PHP+Laravel, HTML. Résumé/CV: https://gabrielsieben.tech/
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (August 2020)”Submitted The Dangers of Microsoft Pluton as a story · 733 points
HN discussionI was at a school which used "Lockdown Browser" to try to lock-down the Windows environment to only the exam. Unfortunately for the school, I had experience with Windows programming, and blew the doors off Lockdown Browser in about 10 minutes, with multiple apps and windows open on top of the befuddled browser. And later, I found a way to do it with no programming skill at all. I did it to make the point that if I c…
Comment linking /2020/10/28/the-lockdown-browser-is-not-very-good-at-locking-down/
on “On the efficacy of online proctoring using Proctorio (2021) [pdf]”Submitted Thinking out loud about 2nd-gen email as a story · 396 points
HN discussionGood. The only widespread uses of TPM are as user-hostile as any other DRM scheme. Stallman was right: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/can-you-trust.en.html (Last few paragraphs.) See also: https://gabrielsieben.tech/2022/07/29/remote-assertion-is-co...
Comment linking /2022/07/29/remote-assertion-is-coming-back-how-much-freedom-will-it-take/
on “TPM GPIO fail: How bad OEM firmware ruins Intel TPM security”Submitted Remote Attestation is coming back as a story · 320 points
HN discussionThese new PCs/chips are about more than just co-pilot. They are also the first series of chips with Pluton. https://gabrielsieben.tech/2022/07/25/the-power-of-microsoft... Pluton should be absolutely TERRIFYING to anyone informed on Microsoft's security story.
Comment linking /2022/07/25/the-power-of-microsoft-pluton-2/
on “Microsoft makes Copilot less useful on new Copilot Plus PCs”Submitted Debloating Windows 10 with one command and no internet scripts as a story · 117 points
HN discussionhttps://gabrielsieben.tech/2022/07/29/remote-assertion-is-co...
Comment linking /2022/07/29/remote-assertion-is-coming-back-how-much-freedom-will-it-take/
on “Web Environment Integrity API”Submitted "Parental controls? What parental controls?" as a story · 26 points
HN discussionThis is not even just Google. Apple, Microsoft, Cloudflare, everyone's in. https://gabrielsieben.tech/2022/07/29/remote-assertion-is-co...
Comment linking /2022/07/29/remote-assertion-is-coming-back-how-much-freedom-will-it-take/
on “Web Environment Integrity API”Submitted Firefox is more irrelevant now than IE6 was as a story · 15 points
HN discussionYeah this is really the endgame. I think the issue is systemic though, this is more than just ad money. Bots and automatability of the web was always an anomaly and a flaw, as the web was and is always designed for humans. Strict human verification was always a need. One can say we did achieve this with 2FA and such, but what is technology all about? Convenience. If it's more convenient, people will prefer remote as…
Comment linking /2022/07/29/remote-assertion-is-coming-back-how-much-freedom-will-it-take/
on “Web Environment Integrity API”Submitted Firefox is more irrelevant now than IE6 was as a story · 10 points
HN discussion>> No one can control the web unless every personal computing device on earth is closed source down to the hardware. It happens one step at a time: https://gabrielsieben.tech/2022/07/29/remote-assertion-is-co...
Comment linking /2022/07/29/remote-assertion-is-coming-back-how-much-freedom-will-it-take/
on “Web Environment Integrity Explainer”Submitted Safari bug involving cursor position leak between windows as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI did see that on the forums, I guess some more transparency on that would have been helpful, since it seems they only told people well after the fact. At the very least not responding to customers is very bad for business, I'm not sure on what basis that Rossman is considering them a scam, but my basis is this, the (possibly illegal under US securities laws) "Investment Opportunity" they've been bugging people abou…
Comment linking /2023/05/10/sorry-purism-im-not-investing-its-not-even-legal/
on “Purism wants Louis Rossman to Delete video exposing refund scam & delay tactic”Submitted Tech’s over-reliance on the internet is a preventable national security issue as a story · 3 points
HN discussionhttps://gabrielsieben.tech/2022/07/25/the-power-of-microsoft... the documented applications of pluton are far more horrifying than the PSP
Comment linking /2022/07/25/the-power-of-microsoft-pluton-2/
on “Hot Chips 2023: AMD’s Phoenix SoC”Submitted Nobody agrees what “right to repair” actually means as a story · 3 points
HN discussion> Can you please link me some articles/references? Well explained here: https://gabrielsieben.tech/2022/07/29/remote-assertion-is-co... So the issue is not the SecureBoot itself, but the ways it can and has been and will be leveraged against the user. If a desktop computer example is not enough, look at how Android phones have increasingly tightened down everything. You can't just take any model and install a custom…
Comment linking /2022/07/29/remote-assertion-is-coming-back-how-much-freedom-will-it-take/
on “MSI's (In)Secure Boot”Submitted A Beginner's Guide to Blu-ray Player Firmware Reverse-Engineering as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted I passed the Triplebyte quiz with no CS classes at 18, failed automated review as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Sorry Purism, I’m not investing. It’s not even legal as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The “Location Off” switch on your phone is a lie as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Hosting this blog at home – with Proxmox and Cloudflare as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Perhaps something was rotten in Skylake as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted My unlawyered opinion on why AI will legally survive in the US as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Lockdown Browser is not good at locking down and preventing cheating (2020) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Parental controls are unusable and it's why Congress is stepping in as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
