TPM

[GB]

Following on from Dan's thread, I looked at buying a TPM for my current PC.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/186266263863

This is £2.34, delivered.

I notice that CCL sell one for £15, and ebuyer are nearly £30. Is a £2
one actually likely to be genuine, or just something that fools the PC
into thinking a TPM is attached?

[Jaimie Vandenbergh]

Post by GB
Following on from Dan's thread, I looked at buying a TPM for my current PC.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/186266263863
This is £2.34, delivered.
I notice that CCL sell one for £15, and ebuyer are nearly £30. Is a £2
one actually likely to be genuine, or just something that fools the PC
into thinking a TPM is attached?

Given you can get away with telling Windows 11 to pretend you have one,
is it even worth £2.34?

Cheers - Jaimie

[Dan]

On 10 May 2024 20:05:13 GMT, Jaimie Vandenbergh

Post by Jaimie Vandenbergh

Post by GB
Following on from Dan's thread, I looked at buying a TPM for my current PC.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/186266263863
This is £2.34, delivered.
I notice that CCL sell one for £15, and ebuyer are nearly £30. Is a £2
one actually likely to be genuine, or just something that fools the PC
into thinking a TPM is attached?

Given you can get away with telling Windows 11 to pretend you have one,
is it even worth £2.34?
Cheers - Jaimie

You should try it, as at that price you cannot even get a decent
sandwich in London.

[GB]

Post by Jaimie Vandenbergh

Post by GB
Following on from Dan's thread, I looked at buying a TPM for my current PC.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/186266263863
This is £2.34, delivered.
I notice that CCL sell one for £15, and ebuyer are nearly £30. Is a £2
one actually likely to be genuine, or just something that fools the PC
into thinking a TPM is attached?

Given you can get away with telling Windows 11 to pretend you have one,
is it even worth £2.34?

I'm not so much interested in trying to fool W11. If a TPM is needed for
security, I'd like it to work properly. I'm not an expert on TPMs, and I
don't really understand why one costs £2 and another £30.

Post by Jaimie Vandenbergh
Cheers - Jaimie

[Theo]

Post by GB

Post by Jaimie Vandenbergh

Post by GB
Following on from Dan's thread, I looked at buying a TPM for my current PC.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/186266263863
This is £2.34, delivered.
I notice that CCL sell one for £15, and ebuyer are nearly £30. Is a £2
one actually likely to be genuine, or just something that fools the PC
into thinking a TPM is attached?

Given you can get away with telling Windows 11 to pretend you have one,
is it even worth £2.34?

I'm not so much interested in trying to fool W11. If a TPM is needed for
security, I'd like it to work properly. I'm not an expert on TPMs, and I
don't really understand why one costs £2 and another £30.

The actual parts don't cost very much, and construction is simple. So the
~£10 price point is plausible. The one above has the chip markings laser
etched away which does not inspire confidence the chip isn't a fake.

This one is the same design but with the markings of the genuine Infineon
chip:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133982601835

but who knows what you actually get.

At the end of the day these kind of listings are mostly about what kind of
subsidy the Chinese government gives them to dump product on the global
market, rather than innate quality differences in the product. It coukd be
good, could be bad, but the price difference is moatly due to subsidy rather
than manufacturing costs.

Doesn't mean they haven't used fake parts but you just can't tell. Only way
to avoid that is to buy from a trustworthy supply chain.

Theo

[Daniel James]

Post by GB
I'm not so much interested in trying to fool W11. If a TPM is needed for
security, I'd like it to work properly.

A TPM is a little hardware device that can store cryptographic keys and
can carry out some security operations using those keys. A TPM also
incorporates security features such as cryptographically-strong random
number generation. Whether these things actually help you to be secure
depends on what software you have installed on your PC and how that
software uses the TPM.

A PC without a TPM is not necessarily insecure.

The main commercial reason that Microsoft and others are encouraging the
use of TPMs is that a TPM can be used to enforce Digital Rights
Management, which has nothing much to do with your security and a lot to
do with enabling big commercial companies to restrict the way in which
you can use their Copyrighted material.

How you feel about that is up to you.

[Jeff Gaines]

Post by Daniel James
The main commercial reason that Microsoft and others are encouraging the
use of TPMs is that a TPM can be used to enforce Digital Rights
Management, which has nothing much to do with your security and a lot to
do with enabling big commercial companies to restrict the way in which you
can use their Copyrighted material.

MSFT have also managed to persuade Malwarebytes to treat Nirsoft's
Produkey as malware (as does defender). Our ability to use our own
computers is constantly squeezed.

[Daniel James]

Post by Jeff Gaines
MSFT have also managed to persuade Malwarebytes to treat Nirsoft's
Produkey as malware (as does defender). Our ability to use our own
computers is constantly squeezed.

You're not wrong! Perhaps this is why I started using Linux (almost)
exclusively about 15 years ago?

[Jeff Gaines]

Post by Daniel James

Post by Jeff Gaines
MSFT have also managed to persuade Malwarebytes to treat Nirsoft's
Produkey as malware (as does defender). Our ability to use our own
computers is constantly squeezed.

You're not wrong! Perhaps this is why I started using Linux (almost)
exclusively about 15 years ago?

Good move, pity I didn't make that decision in the early 90' when I was
deciding what OS to use :-(

Good news is I have one Linux box, only does one specific job but it's
there so I can expand what it does :-)