Re: 1024 bit key considered insecure (sshd)

[Marcus Watts <mdw_(_at_)_umich_(_dot_)_edu>]

"Actually davidchr" <davespam_(_at_)_microsoft_(_dot_)_com> writes:

> It would be stupid of us to knowingly put a backdoor into Windows or any
> other MS product.  A very large percentage of our customers reside
> outside the USA, and many of them don't trust US Companies as a rule.
> If we added backdoors to our software, we'd lose those customers
> (probably forever), and losing customers is not high on our priority
> list.

My IBM thinkpad A31P came preloaded with Windows XP with an extra
explicit backdoor - a special computer account for IBM support folks.
IBM does a lot of overseas sales.  Perhaps they're more trusted?  Then
again, I also found a "remote bios flash" feature in the bios, which I
found more than a little disturbing.  I'm sure it's handy for large
site administrators, but the potential for a nice little bios worm is,
uh, scary.

I heard stories about the "automatic updating facility" in XP
downloading obnoxious advertisements in addition to security patches.
Even ignoring all the trust issues, I sure don't have a need for more
obnoxious advertising in my life.  While I don't expect Windows XP to
go feral and destroy OpenBSD in an effort to root out every virus and
non-Microsoft approved piece of software on the disk, I don't have much
need to run it [and that mostly work related or personal curiosity], so
I turned off every automatic update/remote access thing I could find,
and my plan is for those times to only run it standalone, or attached
to the isolated network at my house.

					-Marcus Watts