From an ethical point of view, the hacker that would be most likely to release this (reswitched: ktemkin) doesn't want to release it.
Thanks for the explanation. However, I very much disagree with the flawed idealism here (and I am not fully convinced that ethics really has anything to do with it):
- First of all, the Tegra is not very widely used and was by no means a commercial success outside the switch.
- Second, it's like saying: "Uh meltdown is bad, let's not release it". What do they think the governments or blackhats do? They are going to look into it, find the bug, abuse it, and instead of it being widely known, people are not going to expect it. Terrible ethics. At least after a release, the issue and danger is more widely known.
- Third, the bootrom or TZ bugs are defeating hypervisors- and TPM-like mechanisms, thus releasing the devices to their owners (removing corporate oversight). When has that become unethical? What flawed hacker logic is that? Tell them to read more Stallman and less lobby whitepapers.
- Lastly, we are going to see a hardware implementation of it anyway. At which point ktemkin has threatened to release it. Worst case, no TX modchip will come because of this and another hacker will eventually sit down, find and release it. Or it will get leaked by somebody who has had enough of the hold-back game.
Basically, there is no ethics in holding back knowledge. Knowledge will find it's way, and specifically in this case there is no purpose to hold it back as the Terga was not a commercial success otherwise. Not to mention that this is defeating technology that prevents owners from using their device fully. It will come out either way and in the meantime everybody is held hostage to ktemkins will and threat. All this is doing is creating a stall so that nothing can be released by anybody who wants to make a bit of money with it. I find that even more unethical.
And we are sitting on or asses, ready to develop, learn and have fun with the OS, not even being able to play. Ethics? Read more nietzsche, scene! Read more Stallman! And stop picture and video releasing (ego boosting).
(Fail0verflow started all this criminally stupid self-promoting pointless BS.)