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Malware uses Intel AMT feature to steal data, avoid firewalls
Microsoft's security team has come across a malware family that uses Intel's Active Management Technology (AMT) Serial-over-LAN (SOL) interface as a file transfer tool.
Because of the way the Intel AMT SOL technology works, SOL traffic bypasses the local computer's networking stack, so local firewalls or security products won't be able to detect or block the malware while it's exfiltrating data from infected hosts.
and . . .
Intel AMT SOL exposes hidden networking interface
This is because Intel AMT SOL is part of the Intel ME (Management Engine), a separate processor embedded with Intel CPUs, which runs its own operating system.
Intel ME runs even when the main processor is powered off, and while this feature looks pretty shady, Intel built ME to provide remote administration capabilities to companies that manage large networks of thousands of computers.
I always believed the Intel Management Engine was a bad idea and a huge target for sophisticated hackers. Your hardware. Pre-compromised from the factory. A processor baked into your microprocessor with full access to the hardware. It runs a secret binary blob -- and the primary microprocessor won't run without it.
This probably isn't the last time that this will be exploited. Probably not even be the first, given the difficulty to detect it. The wonderful thing is that your OS isn't aware of the compromise and is unable to interfere with it.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday June 09 2017, @08:04PM (3 children)
Nah, it's simpler. Just make a Faraday Cage. Then you put in a Rottweiler, like I had as a kid :)
You cannot bypass a Rott, no matter what you've seen in the movies. Not getting around mine, and he was trained as a guard dog. Somebody once thought they could turn him with some treats, or a steak. Ending up getting a real nice steak from the store to try it. I laughed my ass off when he hung over the fence with my boy jumping up trying to kill him, and dropped the steak. One bite, two bites, three bites, without even hitting the floor, and back to kill mode with no hesitation. I miss my boy. I would imagine Siegfried and Roy's computers were safe in the same way. A bunch of tigers roaming free through the house, and that was assuming you could Ocean Eleven' your way through casino security.
If I ever needed to secure information, I would bury hundreds of flash drives over a large area like a squirrel with steganographically encoded information forcing people to endlessly sift through random [youtube.com] crap [youtube.com].
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday June 09 2017, @09:27PM
I'm pretty sure you can.
And now imagine there had been some sedative put in that steak. What would have happened?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Friday June 09 2017, @11:06PM (1 child)
I'm pretty certain a loaded pistol could make a Rotweiler very bypassable.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday June 09 2017, @11:40PM
Well, I was halfway joking. In all seriousness, you better have more than one bullet, and you better catch the dog off guard. A really sincere pissed off Rott that is trained as a guard dog is a serious thing. He took guarding the property a lot more serious than we wanted him to, but we had no doubt that it would take a gun and several bullets to come on property with malice.
The new Giant Rotts (it's a real thing) are even bigger than my boy, and he was huge. I'm about 6'1" (closer to 6'2"), and he would stand on his hind legs and look down at my face.
Even with a gun, I would be nervous. We're not talking about shooting from some place safe, like over a fence. You need to open a door and walk in first, hoping you don't get a face full of Rott.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.