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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 09 2017, @07:40PM (1 child)
How did that train situation work? Was it a rail yard/factory with tracks running at/to difference elevations? Or was it simply somebody too cheap to pay the costs associated with transporting it offsite for disposal who chose instead to bury it, either below ground with established tracks, dumped below ground and covered, or aboveground and mounded over before other material was built around it?
(Score: 2) by nobu_the_bard on Friday June 09 2017, @09:43PM
Oh. It was at an old mill building that we were converting into a warehouse. The building is like 50+ years old, I'm not sure the exact age, it abuts an even older but slightly smaller one owned by another company. I live and work in the rust belt. The mill used to have a lot of trains going through; there's still live train tracks to the neighboring mills nearby. The previous owner was ... pretty shady. They did something with concrete and gravel. They had already made modifications to the building for modern trucks to pull in for loading which we needed.
There were no paper records of the train that anyone could find; it was not a proper engine, some kind of short-range moving vehicle was buried with it (I don't know much about trains). It had two fuel tanks that had been buried along with it, about 10 feet underground parallel to where the tracks had been before we ripped them out. It was now the employee parking lot. Apparently someone had rigged the tanks up to serve as fuel pumps for trucks or trains, or that is what I think they tried to do. They just chopped off the pipes in the ground and covered them when they moved out. We found shoddy piping connected to the tanks pointing at the surface. I never learned why they thought this was a good idea, or if it ever worked.
Environmental people we hired to check the site before we moved in, for insurance, missed it. Leaking fuel was detected by government inspectors and we hired a second company that located the fuel tankers. They were about 1/3 full still and an estimate of 1/3 of the volume of the tanks had leaked into the surrounding ground (I don't remember the exact amounts). Then we sued the first because we got in serious trouble for the environmental stuff, but the lawyers and money guys figured that bit out, I am the IT guy so wasn't directly involved.