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The CPU isn't what's compromised - this is protecting against a compromised motherboard

I think that’s the chicken & egg. If the motherboard was responsible for this, you’re trusting the firmware to validate itself. So this moves the validation a level lower.

It’s an interesting problem. The solution is valid, but it’s unfortunately permanent.

You could have a small rom firmware validating a larger ugradable firmware.

However, the root of trust is embedded to the CPU. So, you can't hammer the CPU on another board for keys.

Also, we sometimes lose the CPU rather than the board. As the CPUs become more complex, their probability to fail has risen.

> However, the root of trust is embedded to the CPU. So, you can't hammer the CPU on another board for keys.

I guess that's the key point here.