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And at the same time creating a side channel that can be interposed on so that malware can be loaded right into the flash on the mother board :-)

Seriously though, being "hard to change" on some parts of the system can be a feature.



Correct. If they push a little more it will just become part of the OS. Firmware should consist of minimal hardware init and a boot loader and nothing more.


BIOS firmware has been flashable from the OS since, what, the Windows 98 days? I'm sure I remember updating the BIOS on an old Pentium III ThinkPad in this manner.


I remember when it used to require a jumper change so it couldn’t be triggered by malware. How I miss those days


Not to mention BIOS-destroying viruses from that era: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIH_(computer_virus)




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