Conversation

Replying to and
You linked to a post about a physical attack vector on an SoC which is entirely applicable to a Linux installation. The post is also dishonest and pushing misinformation, but you're misunderstanding it if you think Linux is better. Linux is far more vulnerable to the same attack.
1
Replying to and
The mitigations implemented in the Trezor firmware against the attack wouldn't be present, and there would be drastically more attack surface. An attacker could much more easily gain code execution. An air gap doesn't remove online attack vectors at all.
1
Replying to and
It still needs to be kept updated too, and there would be massive attack surface simply for that. Simple update verification, full verified boot and downgrade protection with minimal state are important. The entire point is not having the attack surface of a general purpose OS.
1
1
Replying to and
I think you're just misinterpreting that post and drawing the wrong conclusions. It's about a hardware attack, and a general purpose computer running Linux is far more vulnerable to the same kind of attacks. It ignores the passphrase feature and is unnecessarily dishonest too.
2
1
Replying to and
1) Aside from technical comparisons guys. The main drawback of the hype is in its real-world-usage. In the non-tech attack surface. While "shitty linux" computer is multipurpose tool, a low-value-target, the Trezor is a single purpose HVT. Your home address and payment..
1
2) ..details lead to your RL persona, giving the attacker answer on who, when, where, what and how. Once you are reasonably interesting, 5$ wrench technique can be applied by an attacker. The "shitty linux" user is not visible, and remains happily shitty 🤔
1
It can be purchased with Bitcoin using a pseudonym and you aren't forced to send it to your home address. It has a strong mitigation against attacks based on coercion via the passphrase feature. Every passphrase is valid and leads to a different key (i.e. different wallets).
2
I don't understand your proposed threat model anyway. You're suggesting that there will be a sophisticated targeted attack involving an attacker spying on you to the extent that they are aware of your purchase and target you. In that case, they would target a laptop too...
3
The passphrase feature allows for completely deniable keys (wallets) because it doesn't store anything. It only stores the base seed phase that the passphrase is appended to. Every passphrase is valid and there's no persistent state on the device tied to which ones were used.
1