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Many PCs are now equipped with support for the Thunderbolt hardware interface, which allows external equipment to access PCI Express, Displayport, and power supply through the same cable. Starting with Thunderbolt 3, the connectors are USB-C based.
Direct memory access
However, Microsoft’s Surface products are not equipped with Thunderbolt support. Now it turns out that the cause is related to safety. This is evidenced in a leaked video on Twitter last weekend.
In the video, a Microsoft employee talks about the security concerns associated with Thunderbolt, but also that memory modules can be replaced on many PCs.
– No Surface device has Thunderbolt. Why not? Because this is a direct memory access (DMA) port. If you have a well-prepared memory card that can connect to a DMA port, you will have full access to the memory of the device, including all the data stored in the memory without being controlled by the operating system, since the DMA port provides direct access to the memory . We now believe that Thunderbolt cannot provide the necessary security for devices, says the Microsoft representative, adding that the same is true for Firewire.
Therefore, the USB-C ports for Surface devices only support USB.
The Microsoft representative is not named, but Microsoft has confirmed to The Verge that the presentation is genuine and that the representative is a Netherlands-based technology specialist with more than ten years of business experience.
Memory soldered
In the video, the tech specialist also explains why the memory modules in Surface devices are soldered and therefore cannot be replaced by the user.
– We do this on purpose, because if you were able to upgrade the memory and thus physically remove the memory from the machine, you can also easily cool the memory with liquid nitrogen before removing it, and then insert it into a special reader which you can buy from AliExpress for a few dollars. Then you can access all the data that was loaded into memory, including Bitlocker recovery keys, says the tech specialist.
He adds that Microsoft sometimes sees this happen with other devices.
Everything mentioned in the video requires physical access to the device, and Twitter comments in the video point out that the danger of being attacked in this way is very small for most people, and that if someone has physical access to the device, then it is “owned” anyway.
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