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posted by n1 on Monday May 15 2017, @07:04AM   Printer-friendly
from the phme dept.

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Since 2008, most of Intel's chipsets have contained a tiny homunculus computer called the "Management Engine" (ME). The ME is a largely undocumented master controller for your CPU: it works with system firmware during boot and has direct access to system memory, the screen, keyboard, and network. All of the code inside the ME is secret, signed, and tightly controlled by Intel. Last week, vulnerabilities in the Active Management (AMT) module in some Management Engines have caused lots of machines with Intel CPUs to be disastrously vulnerable to remote and local attackers. While AMT can be disabled, there is presently no way to disable or limit the Management Engine in general. Intel urgently needs to provide one.

[...] EFF believes that Intel needs to provide a minimum level of transparency and user control of the Management Engines inside our computers, in order to prevent this cybersecurity disaster from recurring. Unless that happens, we are concerned that it may not be appropriate to use Intel CPUs in many kinds of critical infrastructure systems.

It's a crying shame the what the EFF says doesn't hold a whole lot of weight.

Source: The Electronic Frontier Foundation


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  • (Score: 2) by bradley13 on Monday May 15 2017, @11:26AM

    by bradley13 (3053) on Monday May 15 2017, @11:26AM (#509941) Homepage Journal

    Given all of the other Snowdon revelations, I wouldn't bet against it. In fact, I figure it's damn near certain that the NSA has a backdoor into the management engine. It's a much more attractive target that lots of other things they spend $billions attacking, and they can certainly bend Intel into compliance.

    There's every reason for the ME to be open source, and for owners to have the same level of access to it that they do to their system firmware. I.e., it should be possible for the owner to inspect it, and to alter it just as you would any other firmware. Obviously, this shouldn't be possible from an O/S level (rootkit danger), but possibly through a special physical port.

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