Comment by paulmd | Hacker News Reader

Comment by paulmd | Hacker News Reader

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this isn't just limited to epyc either, it's in the consumer platform as well, and it applies to non-pro cpus that have been used in branded systems.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFNJVaO9E-o&t=215

not only is this removing a cheap source of upgrades for consumers and sending it to e-waste instead, but it's going to pollute the consumer secondhand market in the same way, once AMD starts getting more traction in OEM sales.

just like with epyc, you will need to wade through piles of "HP ryzen" and "Dell ryzen" and find the one that didn't list it as locked. Oops, still locked anyway, that seller just didn't list it properly.

people are gonna wake up one day and realize the secondhand market is completely fuckered, OEMs sell a lot more PCs to businesses than consumers, there is a disproportionate amount of volume that's going to be locked when things start getting parted out. Again, "fortunately" AMD didn't have much traction with OEMs during the AM4 years but AM5 is going to be a real mess.

I'm sure this is illegal and AMD should be prosecuted for it. The people who decided to implement these "security" measures should lose their jobs and/or face legal consequences for it.

If they did such a thing with car components, it would be shut down in no time. No different for computer parts.

Also a CPU that can be rendered permanently inoperable due to a software issue could be considered not fit for purpose and thus a defective product. Especially if it was intentionally designed this way - such that the CPU can self-cripple itself.

Maybe a legal firm would want to take up a class action against AMD for this potential product defect? Viruses and malware should not be able to physically destroy a CPU. There should be physical hardware protections against such destructive behaviour occurring due to a software induced logic error.

The PSP is not truly secure, someone should write a PSP eFuse bricker tool (Ryzenkill?) that can be run as a proof of concept to show the CPUs are defective, and then we can have a recall or free replacement of the CPU by AMD. I'll look into it myself - I need to ensure it's legal for me to write it from the country that I'm residing in right now. I personally have extensive experience hacking older AMD processors and GPUs through JTAG.

I'm sure it's still legal to provide a list of addresses and data writes that you need to perform to permanently brick the CPU?. I don't think that is classed as a "hacking tool". I can get t-shirts printed with it on, together with the words "AMD Ryzen CPU Self-Destruct Sequence". I don't think selling those would be illegal?

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