Olimex Ethernet interfaces resistant to soft-bricking?

[tebin]

I have been suggested by a Freedombox developer to refer here with my question:
https://discuss.freedombox.org/t/freedomboxs-ethernet-card-resistant-to-soft-bricking/382/4
It's all in the title. As I posted there, should I have issues with malicious attempts and soft-bricking, particularly ether-stuff, once I hopefully get an Olimex Freedombox, that should be repairable by reflashing the firmware?

[LubOlimex]

Yes, you can re-flash the Linux in case things go wrong.

[tebin]

I looked up a few times after I posted, but saw no reply-post before...

can re-flash the Linux

I meant reflashing the ether-firmware. Like in 'man ethtool'.

[JohnS]

What makes you think they are soft (have reprogrammable microcode) and that in some cases they cannot be reprogrammed?  I look to have missed it if you think they are like that.

(Obviously you'll have checked how they work / read the datasheets / etc.)

John

[tebin]

What makes you think they are soft (have reprogrammable microcode) and that in some cases they cannot be reprogrammed?
(Obviously you'll have checked how they work / read the datasheets / etc.)

John

Haven't yet. Reasons in the link to freedombox forum, at top (find "looking to"...).

But I feel that I do have to quote myself from my intro there:
> ethercards/routers get soft-bricked, I had a few cases myself.

And here is a quote from man ethtool. More in the linux source, a very hard source which I find to be:

-f --flash
              Write a firmware image to flash or other non-volatile memory on the device.

Hackers can do that from connected remotely to your device, there is little doubt that, given time, a capable but malicious hacker would be able to do such flashing to soft-brick your device. The time needed may be substantial, and may not be so very very much... Theoretically, maybe other yet embedded devices experts could tell us...

Any support once I get me the years long desired LIME2, if I should get soft-bricked? Because I do want it online most of the time...

@JohnS, thanks for looking into this. (And of course thanks @LubOlimex for looking into this previously.)

[JohnS]

I'm fairly sure the chips they use do not have any reprogrammable flash (but if they did they could be reflashed).

Of course that doesn't guarantee the internal silicon is 100% perfect - just as it turns out so many chips have internal bugs (thus, Spectr, Meltdown, ...).

I suspect there are plenty of undiscovered bugs in Linux & apps still, if you want to worry...

Meantime it may be best not to boot via any reflashable memory, so stick to (say) a write-protected SD card.

John

[LubOlimex]

A20, A64, A33 chips were not affected by spectre and meltdown as far as I know, Tsvetan even announced it here: https://olimex.wordpress.com/2018/01/09/spectre-and-meltdown-attacks-and-olinuxino-and-soms/

Can't say about Ethernet chips but I googled "KSZ9031 vulnerability" and couldn't find anything interesting.

[JohnS]

I think we've reached "testing can reveal the presence of bugs but cannot reveal their absence".

John