www.nsa-observer.net

[grarpamp@gmail.com (grarpamp)]

On Tue, Feb 3, 2015 at 11:43 AM,  <dan@geer.org> wrote:
> (sacrificial) machines are sacrificed, which is to say they
> are reloaded/rebooted.  Per message.

Network booting a known image is common. Putting the
print system in hardware is possible too.

> the sacrificial machines are
> thoroughly instrumented in the countermeasure sense.
> ... silent failiure

Validation of correct operation, and detection, in face of evil input
seems much harder... any and all change to memory dump, files,
firmware. All soft parts would need reinitialized. Even becoming
recursively expensive. All for a printer on the don't care side of the air gap?
Doubtful so long as it passes test vectors. Your opponents highest
secrets are historically not likely to come to you embedded in a freaknasty
pdf, but on foot. That may be changing [1]. Either way, sometimes nothing
beats a roomful of human transcriptionists, translators and auditors
with typewriters.

[1] Many a gem may even flow through each side's postmaster@ mail.