[clug] "Trusting" a remote machine booting from a CD

[Peter Barker]

On Mon, 23 Apr 2007, Tony Lewis wrote:

> My description was deliberately vague :-)  It's the ability to boot a machine

You can probably only expect responses that are vaguely helpful, then :)

> It just that I really need it to be bulletproof.

Can't get it to be bulletproof, as other people have stated. 
Bullet-resistent, yes :)

> Yeah, I thought of this.  The issue is more protecting the data that the 
> machine will have access to.

Have you thought about:
  - someone using a digital camera to take photos of the screens
  - Tempest (recently "New and Improved")
  - someone using a digital camcorder to take videos
  - someone plugging a VCR into the TV-out (or VGA-out via an adaptor)
  - any of the other 372.63 analogue holes
  - users with eidetic memories

Basically, you can't have your cake and eat it to.  You either show the 
user the data (in which case you have to assume they'll be able to copy 
the data as they will), or you don't show the user the data.

(I'm assuming you're meaning, "protected from copying" here, not 
"protected from tampering".  "protected from tampering" is easy, 
comparatively).

> Tony

Yours,
-- 
Peter Barker                          |   N    _--_|\ /---- Barham, Vic
Programmer,Sysadmin,Geek              | W + E /     /\
pbarker at barker.dropbear.id.au         |   S   \_,--?_*<-- Canberra
You need a bigger hammer.             |             v    [35S, 149E]
"Peter is apathetic, and I'm vaguely apathetic" -- Rachel, thinking of organising a movie trip