Intel Management Engine Patched

biffzinker · Feb 13, 2020

Ferrum Master said:
Could you show some documentation? It is kinda the info pushed to us to believe.

Earlier versions of ME before v6.0 allowed the whole firmware blob to be disabled.

From Libreboot FAQ:

ME firmware versions 6.0 and later, which are found on all systems with an Intel Core i3/i5/i7 CPU and a PCH, include “ME Ignition” firmware that performs some hardware initialization and power management. If the ME’s boot ROM does not find in the SPI flash memory an ME firmware manifest with a valid Intel signature, the whole PC will shut down after 30 minutes.

Libreboot – Frequently Asked Questions

libreboot.org

Ferrum Master · Feb 13, 2020

biffzinker said:
Earlier versions of ME before v6.0 allowed the whole firmware blob to be disabled.

Well it doesn't stop the Chinese even to make in house even X99 boards with no ME present at all or with an option to hard disable it. They are reusing plain AMI bios, with bits mostly from Pegatron. Bios itself is a very modular thing and recently quite well explored. So it is ME7, ME8 and ME9. If I haven't held such funny sight in my own hands I wouldn't believe it also, in my case it is ME7.1. But as RTB said... there are plenty of undocumented things regarding this... ahem cancer. I treat it as a risk. Any secret code without an option to look it and compile yourself and compare is a potential hazard. Prove me wrong.

It also basically proves actually ME is not needed. The 30min limit is an artificial limitation set, it is a countermeasure.

R-T-B · Feb 15, 2020

DeathtoGnomes said:
The discussion over IME and its vulnerabilities have been going on for over a decade, it was called something like the NSA spyware chip due to the rumored remote back door. If a patch for it makes big news, its likely there was more patched than was noted, like that back door is working again?.

Trust me you do want me patches. There never was any evidence for a backdoor either, people have taken that thing apart three ways if not a dozen more by now.

Ferrum Master said:
If the backdoor really is,

Ain't.

Ferrum Master said:
there are plenty of undocumented things regarding this... ahem cancer.

Yeah, indeed. Mostly out of date binaries in an old minix install.

It's almost comical.

DeathtoGnomes · Feb 16, 2020

R-T-B said:
There never was any evidence for a backdoor either, people have taken that thing apart three ways if not a dozen more by now.

The tinfoil hat conspiracists (is that even a word?) say there is and its still hidden. Just ask China.

:roll:

Ferrum Master · Feb 16, 2020

Well, it is not as a backdoor like it was made for it, it just has some zero day class exploit to gain the same. Backdoor or known bug, same imho. Thinking that it is flawless and does not have bugs is naive. Was it intentional or not, who knows...

Knowing how buggy things really are recently, those fings pop out like mushrooms after rain. Disabling it would be the most mature option.

SaltyFish · Feb 17, 2020

DeathtoGnomes said:
The tinfoil hat conspiracists (is that even a word?) say there is and its still hidden. Just ask China.

Amazingly, this popped up in the news recently. Looks like that tinfoil hat paid off for China (and Russia).

Swiss machines 'used to spy on governments for decades'

Secret control of a Swiss device enabled the US and Germany to collect classified information, reports say.

www.bbc.co.uk

lexluthermiester · Feb 17, 2020

DeathtoGnomes said:
conspiracists (is that even a word?)

It is.

R-T-B · Mar 8, 2020

Ferrum Master said:
Well, it is not as a backdoor like it was made for it, it just has some zero day class exploit to gain the same. Backdoor or known bug, same imho. Thinking that it is flawless and does not have bugs is naive.

I'll agree with that. I do find it hard to believe Intel could so comically naive as they try to appear.

SaltyFish said:
Amazingly, this popped up in the news recently. Looks like that tinfoil hat paid off for China (and Russia).

Swiss machines 'used to spy on governments for decades'

Secret control of a Swiss device enabled the US and Germany to collect classified information, reports say.

www.bbc.co.uk

Unrelated to ME.

You see, it's not that they aren't out to get you (in this case, they are), it's that literally EVERYTHING is not out to get you. :laugh:

ThrashZone · Mar 8, 2020

Hi,
Key phase seems to be discarded

A privileged user, with local access, could exploit the flaw to launch an array of attacks, according to Intel.

lexluthermiester · Mar 9, 2020

ThrashZone said:
Hi,
Key phase seems to be discarded

That is theorized, it has not been tested yet.

Please refer to the first topic starting at 1:56

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