German Government Warns Windows 8 Is an Unacceptable Security Risk

An anonymous reader writes "Die Zeit has access to leaked documents from the German government warning that Windows 8 is an unacceptable security risk for sensitive workloads. The story is written in German here, but automatic translators (such as Google Translate) do a readable job. Particularly of concern is the inability to opt out of TPM 2.0 usage."

Comments

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

It is insecure because you CAN'T use it for your purposes.

It is only there for MS and, by extension, the NSA.

You didn't think that secure boot crap was for YOUR benefit, did you?

Re:How is TPM a security risk?

[Anonymous Coward]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_Platform_Module [Wiki]
See "Criticism" section:

"... The concerns include the abuse of remote validation of software (where the manufacturer — and not the user who owns the computer system — decides what software is allowed to run) and possible ways to follow actions taken by the user being recorded in a database, in a manner that is completely undetectable to the user.
In simple words, it removes user's ability to control the hardware he owns, reducing the device to hardware maker's stealthy agent.
It is "Trusted" to hardware manufacturer, but, the same makes it "uncontrollable" for the user - making the user dependent on trust to the manufacturer, or whatever government or authority there is at particular location."

Re:How is TPM a security risk?

[Jesus_666]

The concern is mainly that the system hinges on the TPM, which in version 2.0 of the standard is controlled by the OS and can't be deactivated. Either you unconditionally trust the operating system (and its vendor) or you can't trust the entire system. Plus, the NSA got to mess with the standard while at least the German BSI (who issued this warning) tried but didn't get anywhere (e.g. they failed to get an opt-out function added to the standard). Plus, all TCG members are American companies and several of them are known to have made deals with the NSA before (such as giving information about security flaws to them first).

In short: The BSI doesn't unconditionally trust Microsoft around sensitive documents and recommends that no TPM 2.0 compatible OS from Microsoft is used where those might show up because TPM 2.0 makes trust in the OS vendor mandatory. Win8/TPM2 is okay for home users who don't want to think about computer security but it has no business being around stuff that might cause harm if leaked to foreign intelligence agencies.

Re:How is TPM a security risk?

[Kjella]

The only thing holding back DRM being the primary beneficiary of TPM is the lack of adoption and the fact that TPM is entirely voluntary. If every computer had a TPM module regardless of the users preference you could be damn certain that many DRM schemes would be using this.

Microsoft has announced that from January 1, 2015 all computers will have to be equipped with a TPM 2.0 module in order to pass the Windows 8.1 hardware certification. And while not every computer will run Windows, I very much doubt you'll find a computer that can't run Windows so that's the end of TPM-less hardware. Of course Windows 8.1 will run on non-TPM hardware but I figure in a few years Windows 9 will refuse to run on anything but TPM-enabled hardware. That's the end of the PC as an open platform and you can already prepare for the funeral.