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Purism Disables Intel ME On Its Privacy-Focused Librem Laptops
Purism, a startup that aims to develop privacy-focused devices, announced that it has now disabled Intel's Management Engine (ME). The company, and many privacy activists, believe that because Intel's ME is a black box to the user, it could hide backdoors from certain intelligence agencies. Alternatively, it may contain vulnerabilities that could even be unknown to Intel, but which might still be exploited by sophisticated attackers to bypass the operating system's security.
[...] The Librem laptops use Coreboot firmware, which is an open source alternative to BIOS and UEFI for Linux. The company said that using Coreboot is one of the primary reasons why they were able to disable Intel ME in the first place. Coreboot allowed them to dig down on how the processor interacts with this firmware and with the operating system.
Purism had already "neutralized" the Intel ME system on its Librem laptops, which essentially meant that the mission-critical components of Intel ME were removed. However, this could still cause some errors, because the Intel ME would still be "fighting" Coreboot's attempt to neutralize it. With the new method that disables it, the Intel ME can be shut down gracefully. Purism's laptops will continue to support both methods for extra security, just in case the Intel ME is able to "wake-up" somehow, after it's disabled.
[...] Both Librem 13 and Librem 15 laptop models will now ship with Intel ME disabled by default. Customers who have purchased the older Librem laptops will also receive an update that will disable Intel ME on their systems.
Related: Purism Exceeds $1 Million in Funding for Librem 5 Linux-Based Smartphone
How-To: Disabling the Intel Management Engine
(Score: 3, Interesting) by looorg on Sunday October 22 2017, @04:53PM (3 children)
Will there be some general solution to disable this that won't involve soldering and voiding warranties? For more machines, not only Librem laptops, and motherboard manufacturers or are they all deep in the Intel pocket(s)?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday October 22 2017, @05:06PM
So - do you want a computer, or a prophet? Hell, I'll take a stab at prophesying. Yes, one day, everyone will be able to bypass Intel's management. At least within ten years after Intel has gone bankrupt, and some other corrupt investors have taken over for them. Of course, then you'll be wanting someone to bypass IntelRehydrated's new management engine.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Sunday October 22 2017, @06:01PM
Added related IME story from the 15th
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 22 2017, @06:22PM
There is MEcleaner https://github.com/corna/me_cleaner [github.com]
I disabled Intel ME on my i5 7600k with a modded BIOS and flash.