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> aside from a self-compiled Linux kernel.

Likely sitting on an unencrypted /boot, waiting to be replaced by one with a keylogger, am I right? Of course a sane person doesn't trust a system that's been compromised before nuking it and reloading from a clean image.

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There is unfortunately relatively little you can do to thwart such an attack, apart from keeping your notebook with you at all/most times.

Though using a USB key for /boot might be an idea, it is a little less clunky than a ThinkPad and since I suspend to RAM most of the time, it could even be practical. Hm.

Can't TPM be used for this? It could verify your /boot with keys external to the disk itself. I'm not sure if somebody has actually built a solution that uses it yet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_Platform_Module

Sure it can, as can its evolution in the form of UEFI's Secure Boot, the problem is everyone wants to label these as technologies to enable lock-in instead of technologies to provide a trusted boot chain to ensure your system isn't compromised.

It could (the same goes for Secure Boot, in some sense). But the three-letter agencies from whom you want to protect yourself here likely have backdoor keys</paranoia>.

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