Recently I came across Microsoft Pluton while searching for a new laptop. Initially I thought it was like TPM and wouldn’t affect Linux. But the more I researched, the worse it got. According to them
Microsoft Pluton is a chip-to-cloud security technology that provides hardware-based root of trust, secure identity, secure attestation, and cryptographic services
Does it connect to Cloud irrespective of the OS I ran? If yes this could be a privacy nightmare.
Why aren’t more people talking about this? It been here at-least since the last two generation of CPUs from AMD (from my research worst offender) and Intel.
Isn’t this a privacy violation lawsuit waiting to happen? In what ways does this Microsoft Pluton chip affect people who use Linux and should I not buy a new Laptop?
Also what about manufactures like Framework? Are they also forced to work with this chips?
From where I am, used laptops are not worth it.
Pluton is a weird thing. It’s not dedicated HW designed or produced by Microsoft, it’s more of a specification which requires something like TPM2 hardware on a given SOC.
Most vendors do not implement the pluton spec in their offerings.