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Why Intel Will Never Let Owners Control the Management Engine

posted by chromas on Monday July 23 2018, @10:22PM   
from the drm dept.

canopic jug writes:

Hugo Landau has written a blog post about why Intel will never let hardware owners control the Management Engine. The Intel Managment Engine (ME) is a secondary microprocessor ensconced in recent Intel x86 chips, running an Intel-signed, proprietary, binary blob which provides remote access over the network as well as direct access to memory and peripherals. Because of the code signing restrictions enforced by the hardware, it cannot be modified or replaced by the user.

Intel/AMD will never allow machine owners to control the code executing on the ME/PSP because they have decided to build a business on preventing you from doing so. In particular, it's likely that they're actually contractually obligated not to let you control these processors.

The reason is that Intel literally decided to collude with Hollywood to integrate DRM into their CPUs; they conspired with media companies to lock you out of certain parts of your machine. After all, this is the company that created HDCP.

This DRM functionality is implemented on the ME/PSP. Its ability to implement DRM depends on you not having control over it, and not having control over the code that runs on it. Allowing you to control the code running on the ME would directly compromise an initiative which Intel has been advancing for over a decade.

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Original Submission

• Not all Intel CPU's - yet?Not all Intel CPU's - yet? (Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday July 24 2018, @02:25AM (3 children)

  by Runaway1956 (2926) on Tuesday July 24 2018, @02:25AM (#711525) Journal

  A couple quick searches about the Intel ME let me here: https://learnlinuxandlibreoffice.org/3-create-your-own-linux-computer/3-1-why-we-need-to-create-our-own-computer [learnlinuxandlibreoffice.org]

  The page didn't seem to be very on-topic, but I browsed through anyway. Apparently, Chromebooks don't use the ME.

  Specifically, the article is showing how to take the top-of-the-line Chromebook, and turn it into a Linux laptop. The CPU is only a Celeron 3205U Broadwell dual core, but the article touts it as plenty fast enough, and powerful enough to run Linux Mint and Libreoffice.

  #5 Legacy Boot allows us to replace Chrome OS with Linux Mint
  Broadwell also features an important development for Chromebooks called Legacy Boot. In the past, it was difficult to completely replace the Chrome Operating System with a full Linux operating system. The addition of Legacy boot makes this process much easier. The Acer C910 therefore provides a process to easily replace the Chrome Operating System with a fully functioning Linux Mint operating system. After this replacement, students are not only able to process documents, videos and images offline, but they have access to thousands of free open source programs to process these documents, images and videos. These free open source programs are often better than commercial programs costing thousands of dollars. In short, the Acer C910, after upgrading to a 256 GB Solid State Drive and the Linux Mint operating system, opens up a whole new world of educational opportunities for students while saving parents and school districts thousands of dollars per student. In our next articles and videos, we will describe how to upgrade the SSD to 256 GB and how to replace the Chrome operating system with the Linux Mint operating system.

  It isn't quite clear to me yet, whether the 6th and higher generations of this chip have the ME on Chromebooks - or even if they are used in Chromebooks.

  --
  We're gonna be able to vacation in Gaza, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran and maybe Minnesota soon. Incredible times.

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• Re:Not all Intel CPU's - yet?Re:Not all Intel CPU's - yet? (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @02:52AM (2 children)

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @02:52AM (#711542)

  t isn't quite clear to me yet,

  Again, Runaway, thank you for sharing you lack of understanding. It has been very helpful to the SN community.

  Parent

  • Re:Not all Intel CPU's - yet?Re:Not all Intel CPU's - yet? (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @04:51AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @04:51AM (#711579)

    Wo ist Francis?

    Parent

    • Re:Not all Intel CPU's - yet?(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @01:56PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @01:56PM (#711719)

      Don't worry 'bout Francis. All he wants is a pat on the head, and the old bastard won't pay him any mind.

      Parent