This is a hardware issue. Hardware failure is best guarded against using redundant systems. Since random errors tend to lead to different outcomes, machines which agree on what they were told would be the ones which did not experience hardware failure.
Personally, I'd recommend 5x redundancy for machines where public safety is a critical issue. -- Raul On Tue, Mar 14, 2023 at 12:33 PM <p...@delphinusdns.org> wrote: > > >Synopsis: can we resist agains bit flipping? > >Category: system > >Environment: > System : OpenBSD 7.2 > Details : OpenBSD 7.2 (GENERIC.MP) #2: Thu Nov 24 23:53:03 MST > 2022 > > r...@syspatch-72-arm64.openbsd.org:/usr/src/sys/arch/arm64/compile/GENERIC.MP > > Architecture: OpenBSD.arm64 > Machine : arm64 > >Description: > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-event_upset > > A single event upset gave someone in belgium who was in a poll, 4096 > extra votes. When I think about this bit flip and look at the kernel > code for an ultra secure operating system there is not much stopping > someone to try an attack during a cosmic storm or increased solar > activity. Perhaps a bit flips somewhere in the CPU or RAM? > > pjp@polarstern$ grep sourceroute ip_input.c > int ip_dosourceroute = 0; > if (!ip_dosourceroute) { > if (!ip_dosourceroute) > &ip_dosourceroute); > > Like here. As you know someone found something last week if this were > enabled. But the way this check is. It doesn't check for the low bit set to > one but it checks for the inverted value, so if the 12th bit was flipped in a > solar storm ip_dosourceroute would now be 4096. And the system would be wide > open. > > >How-To-Repeat: > Hackers probably check the weather report like > https://spaceweather.com/ for increased solar activity and then fill > the CPU caches with attempts to get a bit flip happening. The odds > aren't in their favour but who knows they may get lucky. > >Fix: > I propose all these variables to be monitored occasionally with a CRC > check and if there is a bit flip happening to unset it to the right value. > This is a lot of work but may be worth it. OpenBSD would never be faring to > space right? I have no code but trying to think around how to do this. > > > dmesg: > cut >
