TID: Mystic BBS 1.12 A46   
   MSGID: 1:387/26 8e1bb436   
   REPLY: 1208.clascomp@1:2320/105 275ce5bc   
   TZUTC: -0500   
   On 13 Aug 2022, Mike Powell said the following...   
    MP> As the SBC it was all running on is public facing, I didn't want the   
    MP> version of linux running under it all to get too long in the tooth.    
    MP> Once I upgraded it, I could never get it all working again.   
      
   This is the main reason I prefer FPGAs to emulation on an SBC for   
   public-facing projects such as BBSs, although this has really got me   
   thinking about security on FPGA-based hardware.   
      
   Right now, I have a Raspberry Pi running Mystic BBS software. If a caller   
   were able to break that software, they could possibly gain access to the   
   underlying OS, which is plenty powerful enough to go exploring my home   
   network, even without root privileges. It's not public-facing, for that   
   reason.   
      
   A BBS running on an emulated system, itself running on a Raspberry Pi, is   
   perhaps slightly more complicated, but not all that different. If someone   
   were able to break the BBS software, they might be able to gain access to the   
   emulated system (more on that below). Breaking that, they'd be able to access   
   the underlying modern OS.   
      
   A BBS running on DEC OS/8, running on an FPGA implementation of a PDP-8 would   
   be a different story, I thought before writing this, because there's nowhere   
   to go after breaking the PDP-8 FPGA implementation; beyond that is only   
   hardware.   
      
   So a malicious caller would, at best, have a PDP-8 system with a WiFi modem   
   at their disposal. Could that be used to wreak havoc on the local network?   
   Yes, given someone with enough PDP-8 knowledge, I now believe it could. It   
   wouldn't be easy, but it would be possible.   
      
   Hmm.   
      
   Jeff.   
      
   --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Raspberry Pi/32)   
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