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Garrett: To update blobs or not to update blobs

Welcome to LWN.net [LWN.net] [Unofficial] March 3, 2026
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Matthew Garrett examines the factors that go into the decision about whether to install a firmware update or not. > I trust my CPU vendor. I don't trust my CPU vendor because I want to, I trust my CPU vendor because I have no choice. I don't think it's likely that my CPU vendor has designed a CPU that identifies when I'm generating cryptographic keys and biases the RNG output so my keys are significantly weaker than they look, but it's not literally impossible. I generate keys on it anyway, because what choice do I have? At some point I will buy a new laptop because Electron will no longer fit in 32GB of RAM and I will have to make the same affirmation of trust, because the alternative is that I just don't have a computer.

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