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The Pentium III Chip Controversy 0. Objective
The objective of this report is to
provide the background regarding the controversy recently
generated around Intel's Pentium III chip that includes a
unique ID number in it. The ID number can be configured to
be visible or invisible to applications, including Web
Browsers, situation that has raised several questions about
security and privacy. Specifically, we will analyze all the
facts related to the case, potential implications of Intel's
action, and we will answer the question whether the chip
should be shipped with the ID number visible as the default
or not. A more extensive form of this paper will be
presented as a white paper after the class debate. The increased use of the Internet for communications and electronic commerce is raising PC users' concerns about the confidentiality and integrity of transaction-oriented data. Since computers are the primary connections to the Internet, they are a logical place to add security features. The vision of millions of interconnected trusted computers cannot be realized unless encryption mechanisms are designed to provide security for authentication. The computer is a good place to start as it is a physical node on the network (software is a virtual one). Intel is not alone in this effort as other processor manufacturers are contemplating adding the feature. In late January this year, Intel Corporation announced that planned to launch its new Pentium III processor that would include a processor serial number (PSN). Each Pentium would have its own identification number built in to the core and would identify the processor and the PC when a user connects with another site or system. In words of the company, the chip would offer more security for e-commerce transactions, offering merchants a new protection layer to the traditional login-password approach. Soon after this information was released, different privacy groups started a campaign against the measure, arguing that such ID number would violate privacy of Internet users allowing third-parties to identify and collect data on Web surfers. Junkbusters, Electronic Privacy Information Center, and the Center for Democracy and Technology led the coalition of privacy groups attacking Intel over the new PIII feature. The coalition's boycott hit hard the company and included letters to US Congressmen, the FTC, Mutual Funds holding Intel stocks and the media in general. The Pentium® III processor was designed with the Internet in mind. One of its new features is an embedded electronic identification number added to every Pentium III processor. Known as the processor serial number or PSN, this feature is supposed to benefit consumers by providing an increased level of security on the web. For example, the PSN, in combination with user name and password, can strengthen the security for e-commerce, members-only chat rooms and many other websites with restricted access. This relies on a software utility that will be installed by PC manufacturers or maybe built into future operating systems. This software will interface with the processor and the browser. When a Web site asks the browser to authenticate an ID, the browser calls the utility software which interrogates the processor and returns an ID number. The browser, then, transmits the ID number to the Web site. After some days of consideration, Intel finally decided to ship the processor with the PSN in the "off" position in order to soften the adverse publicity of its new chip. The company also said it would offer software that would allow users to switch the PSN on and off and alert them if the PSN's mode was to be changed. Despite these steps, privacy groups did not stop there, and decided to expand their call for a boycott to include any PC manufacturer that ships a Pentium III system with the ID number, not just Intel. Staring from that point, controversy has arisen and the issue is not yet resolved. On the one hand, advocates of Intel's chip argue that the PSN is not accessible if it is in the "off" position. On the other hand, privacy groups have warned that it is not in Intel's control to put the switch "on" or "off" but in computer manufacturer's control. Moreover, they have argued that the software provided by Intel is easily "hackable" so even if the PSN number is turned "off", hacker would have the ability to enter a remote system, change the status of the PSN and from there, start misusing the PSN information. In the following section of this paper we will analyze in detail the pros and cons of the referred chip, what should be done, and what are the potential consequences of having such a chip in the market. The Pentium III processor owner will be able to make choices about how to use the processor serial number. The processor serial number does not and cannot transmit or "broadcast" information over the Internet. In general, a user will need to explicitly allow the reading of processor serial number by a website. In order to read the processor serial number, a website will need to run a program on the user's system. The default security setting of popular web browsers alerts a user before permitting a program to be executed. In keeping with "safe web surfing," users should exercise caution before allowing any program to be executed from an unfamiliar website. Users concerned about a particular website's use of their processor serial number may refuse to download and/or run the program. People fear that the PSN might allow
Intel to spy on people, to act as some type of Trojan horse
that would collect information about the user and report
back to Intel. However, Intel claims that this Processor
Serial Number is just a number, a piece of information on
the chip, and it does not have the capability to send or
receive information. Intel also has a Privacy Policy
statement where they state that no personal information
tracking will take place within Intel utilizing PSNs. What is PSN? The Intel® processor serial number (PSN) feature is embedded into the chip during the manufacturing process of the Pentium® III processor. A unique PSN for each processor can function as an authentication feature in e-commerce, remote management of corporate PC's in a network, enhancing security on the Internet, and acting as a username and password for websites. The Processor Serial Number starts out as a 96-bit number, a string of 96 zeros and ones, on the processor. This is put on during manufacturing as a physical part of the processor. It can not be erased or modified by the user. While it is 96-bits, the actual PSN is the last 64 bits, this is a different number for each processor. The first 32-bits is the CPUID, which has been in place since the later i386 processors and contains encoded information about your specific processor that can be read by certain pieces of software. The CPUID identifies the following:
The 96-bit PSN is used by two new instructions on the Pentium III processor. As stated before, the PSN is just information; it is not any type of device that can send or receive information over the Internet. The first instruction is the read instruction, which when executed by a program, the 96-bit PSN is returned to that application. The second instruction, the disable instruction, is the one that people are so interested in; it manipulates the Model Specific Register bit. When that bit is set to 0, the last 64 bits of the PSN is unlocked and the first instruction can return the processor specific PSN. When the bit is set to 1, the last 64 bits of the PSN is locked and can not be read but the read instruction can still return the CPUID. Initially Intel had planned the Model
Specific Register is 0, or on by default. Intel's Processor
Serial Number Control Utility, then, can be installed to
control the reading of the PSN; Intel has asked PC vendors
to install this extension into the software. This works in
Windows (a version is being developed for Linux systems) to
determine the state of the Model Specific Register bit, set
the state to 0 or 1, and to read the value of the PSN. A
user can have this utility set the register the state to off
whenever Windows boots up. However, while the PC is on and
before Windows loads the application, the state is on, so to
combat this, the register can also be modified in the system
BIOS. Intel is helping motherboard manufacturers create BIOS
software that supports the manipulation of the register bit;
by doing this, a user can have the PSN turned off when the
computer turns on. To further aid the user, the register can
be turned off without rebooting the system, but has to be
rebooted when turning it on. This is a layer of security in
preventing websites from turning on a register that is set
to be off at boot-up and reading the PSN without the user
knowing. Due to raised campaign against this feature, Intel
is shipping the new processors with the PSN off as
default. The Pros The supporters of the PSN, advocate that this will provide stronger security for the purposes of electronic commerce. It can be used to trace illegal activities such as fraud, virus releases, hackers, and money laundering. The PSN can also provide an effective way for verification of transactions as well as a means for better intellectual property management. Software companies can hence protect their intellectual property against illegal copying. The use of the ID scheme can also solve illegal over-clocking problems that have plagued Intel for some years. Over-clocking is an act of running a processor at a higher speed than that specified by its manufacturer. Hardware hackers can easily achieve the over-clocking by assembling a high-speed bus with the processor. Intel has encountered the over-clocking problem because computer companies are able to buy a 300 MHz Celeron processor, over-clock it to 400 MHz and sell it as a 400 MHz-processor to consumers. The Cons The main opposition to the implementation of the PSN comes from the privacy public interest groups. The PSN has a flavor of Orwellian surveillance society, where people can not only be traced down for illegal uses, but also people's purchasing habits can be traced down to the extend that their privacy can be compromised by commercial interests. The fact that the PSN can be remotely read by web sites and other programs in mass-market computers would significantly damage consumer privacy in the sense that the number could be used to link user's activities on the Internet for marketing and other purposes. According to Internet security experts, the PSN will not provide real security because it is poorly designed. Hackers will be able to forge PSNs, thus undercutting potential authentication uses. Beyond the privacy issue, the PSN can become an inconvenience for people who use more than one PC or for several people who share one computer. What would happen with multiprocessing computers? Will the owner have more than one Internet identities?
Concluding Remarks The PSN does compromise privacy as admitted by Intel officials. At the same time, it is questionable that the PSN will result in major improvements of security. The improved security seems to affect more the average user (at the expense of their privacy), but it is obvious that malicious users will still have plenty of room to continue their activities unaffected. The privacy advocates seem to be serious about boycotting Intel's chip if they don't backup. And there's a valid reason for that. At a time when the future of the web is being determined, the PSN would set a bad precedent.
Links in the Media
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WWW Consortium Proposal Project Report Pentium III Background White Paper [pdf] Presentation [pdf] The Course Page Yonah's Page Gonzalo's Page Charis' Page Mahmoud's Page |
