Irenes (many)3d ago

when Intel introduced a cpuid instruction, around 1998 or so

there was a debate on the Linux kernel mailing list as to whether Linux should provide a way to call that instruction

you know, because of its potential uses for surveillance and how that was sharply at odds with the idea of computers being owned by their users

Show threadIrenes (many)3d ago
the resolution, at least for a while, was that Linux would implement an interface for programs to invoke the instruction, but would also add an interface that allows the user to instruct the kernel to lie and return a user-specified identifier instead
Show threadgaytabase3d ago
@ireneista that's kind of funny. i'm glad we can use cpuid though, a lot of my performance gaming relies on it.
Show threadJosh Simmons3d ago
@dysfun @ireneista more importantly, hiding it wouldn't change how easy it is to fingerprint a computer that you have code execution on.
Show threadIrenes (many)
@dotstdy @dysfun that's certainly true, of course, fingerprinting is a highly effective strategy
Mar 19 at 9:22pmWeb