On The Metal Trammell Hudson
Dec 30, 2019
Computer security researcher Trammell Hudson discusses supercomputers, firmware vulnerabilities, open source firmware movement, retro computing projects, reverse engineering Canon cameras, Canon camera vulnerability, IoT device integration challenges, and concluding remarks on hardware-software interface.
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Custom OS for Supercomputers
- Trammell Hudson worked at Sandia National Labs on high-performance computing.
- Their custom OS for Intel Paragon supercomputers prioritized user resources by minimizing OS memory usage.
HPC Design in the 90s
- High-performance computing (HPC) machines in the 1990s prioritized communication due to limited memory.
- Sandia's approach involved partitioning nodes for specific tasks (compute, file servers, external connections) to efficiently manage large systems.
Modchips of the State
- Trammell's "Modchips of the State" talk explored hardware implants.
- He demonstrated replacing a resistor with an active component to inject payloads into the BMC during boot.