Open source is obviously safer than running propriatary code. Bugs can be found and squashed easier, backdoors can theoretically be found. But despite all this freedom in computing, it’s still very hard to actually know what code you are running. Double Compiling, Underhanded C.

In adition, there are also threats at the hardware level such as with Intel ME and possibly AMD PSP. Analog Malicous Hardwrae, A true libre computer.

The computer build by Gabriel L. Somlo is quite interesting as he built a whole RISC-V computer on FPGAs. This means that the user of this computer can be reasonibly sure that there is no hardware backdoors. This is a step in a good direction.

Me and a friend were discussing homelabbing not too long ago and how most things are probably backdoored by the USA and China. Things like Intel ME really make me sad, considering how cheap Intel hardware is second hand. However, to run the securest server, would it make sense to run on RISC-V? Since we could get chips from other places that wouldn’t have a “management engine” supervising the CPU at all times with access to the network. But then at that point you are trusting a small company that would be easier to bend to the will of a state actor to backdoor it.