zauguin | 1 month ago | on: TPM on embedded systems: Pitfalls and caveats to watch out for
zauguin's comments
zauguin | 2 months ago | on: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone
> - Remove the data. This is much harder than it sounds. Many PDF tools won't let you change the content of a PDF, not because it isn't possible, but because you'll likely massively screw up the formatting, and the tools don't want to deal with that.
Compared to other formats this is actually relatively easy in a PDF since the way the text drawing operators work they don't influence the state for arbitrary other content. A lot of positioning in a PDF is absolute (or relative to an explicitly defined matrix which has hardcoded values). Usually this makes editing a PDF harder (since when changing text the related text does not adapt automatically), but when removing data it makes it much easier since you can mostly just delete it without affecting anything else. (There are exceptions for text immediately after the removed data, but that's limited and relatively easy to control.)
> - Replace the data. This what what all the "blackout" tools do, find "A" and replace with "🮋". This is effective and doesn't break formatting since it's a 1-to-1 replacement.
That's actually rather tricky in PDFs since they usually contain embedded subset fonts and these usually do not have "🮋" as part of the subset. Also doing this would break the layout since "🮋" has a different width than most letters in a typical font, so it would not lead to less formatting issues than the previous option. Unless the "🮋" is stretched for each letter to have the same dimensions, but then the stretched characters allow to recover the text.
> The problem with "replacing" is that not every PDF tool works the same way, and some, instead, just change the foreground and background color to black; it looks nearly the same, but the power of copy-and-paste still functions.
PDF does not have a concept of a background color. If it looks like a background color in PDF, you have a rectangle drawn in one color and something in the foreground color in front of it. What you usually see in badly redacted PDF files is exactly this, but in opposite color: Someone just draws a black box on top of the characters. You could argue that this is smarter since it would still work even if someone would chnage colors, but of course, PDF is a vector format. If you just add a rectangle, someone else can remove it again. (And also copy & paste doesn't care about your rectangle)
zauguin | 1 year ago | on: Volkswagen reintroducing physical controls for vital functions
zauguin | 1 year ago | on: No more boot loader: Please use the kernel instead
zauguin | 2 years ago | on: Advice for new software devs who've read all those other advice essays
Just have an options file which is checked in with the code and enforce whatever is set in there works much better. You still avoids all the useless discussions about formatting while also allowing to set sensible settings which are consistent with surrounding technology.
zauguin | 2 years ago | on: Show HN: Encrypt and upload files to IPFS from browser
> The Service is offered for the creation and storage of NFTs. Use of the Service to store other types of data is not permitted.
Do you have a special agreement with NFTStorage which overrules the general Terms and Conditions?
zauguin | 2 years ago | on: Show HN: PDF Debugger – Inspect Structure of PDF Files
It's a bit different if you are looking at a tagged PDF, where the tagging structure is in there, but if you want to look at that in detail you are probably better served with e.g. ngPDF (https://ngpdf.com/) which will show the tagging structure including the mapping to rendered elements.
zauguin | 2 years ago | on: A Comparison of ARM Cortex-A Series Processor Performance Classifications
zauguin | 2 years ago | on: B612 Font Family
But more generally the font has an empty GSUB table which would be used for such substitutions. I'm wondering if the cockpit display maybe misses support for that and that's why they tried not to use it for anything.
zauguin | 2 years ago | on: Accessible Palette: stop using HSL for color systems (2021)
zauguin | 2 years ago | on: American Satirist C.J. Hopkins Sentenced in German Speech Case
They can now object to it, then there will be a full trial. If they loose there, then they can appeal.
zauguin | 2 years ago | on: Fixing the TPM: Hardware Security Modules Done Right
Then again, if you want to control what runs on your system, you probably don't run Windows in the first place.
Also if you want to stop Windows from booting, it's much more reliable to change the Secure Boot keys (and of course not adding the Microsoft keys afterwards). Then your system is guaranteed Windows free.
zauguin | 2 years ago | on: Fixing the TPM: Hardware Security Modules Done Right
To set the owner password (mainly for Storage) ``` tpm2_changeauth -c owner file:- ```
To set the endorsement password (e.g. to verify that the TPM is authentic): ``` tpm2_changeauth -c endorsement file:- ```
To set the lockout password (to recover the system without requiring a full reset): ``` tpm2_changeauth -c endorsement file:- ```
zauguin | 2 years ago | on: Don't fire your illustrator
[unjustifiable]: https://www.npmjs.com/package/unjustifiable?activeTab=readme [Hypher]: https://github.com/bramstein/hypher
zauguin | 2 years ago | on: Fixing the TPM: Hardware Security Modules Done Right
Can't you already do that with an existing TPM? You just set an owner authentication password and an endorsement authentication password and no application can use it anymore unless you provide the password.
Technically it would still be possible to use it as a very slow cryptographic coprocessor I guess, but that benign and useless. It does still provide access to some platform measurements, but they can't be signed by a authenticated (or even safely stored) key, so they are easy to fake.
In addition to that the OS of course can be used to completely block access to it if needed.
The problem is not that people can't stop applications from using it, it is just that in practice people don't care.
zauguin | 2 years ago | on: CNET is deleting old articles to try to improve its Google Search ranking
> The program must include source code [...] The source code must be the preferred form in which a programmer would modify the program. Deliberately obfuscated source code is not allowed. Intermediate forms such as the output of a preprocessor [...] are not allowed.
zauguin | 2 years ago | on: Meta blocking news links in Canada
zauguin | 2 years ago | on: 32“ E Ink screen that displays daily newspapers on your wall (2021)
I don't think they are making money out of this. The display is 2300€ without VAT and the OP is selling them with 2783€ with 21% VAT, so it's exactly the same price.
zauguin | 2 years ago | on: 32“ E Ink screen that displays daily newspapers on your wall (2021)
What are the requirements to make a system work with these? Do you at the end stream bitmaps to the device? Something else? Is there a documented interface?
zauguin | 2 years ago | on: 32“ E Ink screen that displays daily newspapers on your wall (2021)