Security News > 2023 > April > Firmware is on shaky ground – let's see what it's made of

Nobody goes out and buys new firmware; there are plenty of enthusiast alternate firmware images for any number of devices, but these are almost all free and open source.

While companies can buy in firmware from other companies, more often, as with MSI, you're a hardware company writing your own firmware.

Companies like using firmware to lock down their devices to business models - even when, as Sonos discovered, those models can provoke customer rebellion.

Apple plays the same game, but more cunningly: you can't put third-party firmware into its devices, but by letting old devices die in stages after the updates stop coming, it hopes you won't notice.

We notice the old devices piling up in a desk drawer, hardware perfectly fine but with ancient firmware that just won't play with modern services.

If your device stops working because of obsolete embedded software, how do you repair it? You could do it if you could replace the firmware like any other component, except the manufacturer is denying you the information you need to do that.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/04/17/opinion_column/