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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.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @04:03AM (8 children)
It'll try to connect out using wireless
Like a virus
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Tuesday July 24 2018, @04:11AM (7 children)
Easily dealt with.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday July 24 2018, @05:12AM (6 children)
How would you handle:
"! Update required. Please connect to internet for critical system security update. " ( ding! )
And system fails to run until you agree and give it what it wants.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Tuesday July 24 2018, @08:46AM (2 children)
I would not use a system that tries to control, deny my instructions and generally boss me around.
I mean think about it, if you care about freedom and security enough to never ever connect your PC to a network and only deal with USB sticks as your interaction, why on earth would you go through all that effort, and deal with all the inconvenience, and then stick to a software system that tells you what you should do, and denies you control unless you submit to its instructions?
Ideally, If you want security and control, you have to apply it to the entire stack, from the silicon to the end-user app.
Also, I would not recommend USB sticks, after all, an entire class of viruses developed that spread by floppies, in theory nefarious backdoor could just use your USB stick for compromising you. Not sure what would be a good way for communication, I would probably go back to the old RS232, with custom (and limited) commandsets. It is a low-level, simple and rugged enough system that it would be hard to find underlying security holes in, at which point your security is as good as the terminal server you write/use on the other end of the line.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by fyngyrz on Tuesday July 24 2018, @10:03AM
With an axe.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Tuesday July 24 2018, @10:05AM
ugh, sorry, replied to wrong message. Coffee!
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Tuesday July 24 2018, @10:10AM (2 children)
I'd handle it with an axe.
Seriously. If a machine with no connection to the net suddenly demanded one and this was hardware-based, there's no way in the world it could be trusted. You know, we don't have to use computers. If the process is made to be intolerable, then we should stop using the problem hardware until / unless they fix it. Or, if there is one, use an alternative source of hardware (and don't reward the miscreants who made the untrustworthy hardware with future purchases, either.)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by anubi on Tuesday July 24 2018, @11:05AM (1 child)
I was relating the frustration I am experiencing with my phone when using Yelp, and it keeps nagging me requiring a Google account if I am going to see more than one set of reviews... it bluescreens on me, "checking info", then redirects me to Google... "Add your account".
This kind of thing really annoys me.
I keep seeing all these gadgets for sale on store shelves, but they have internet connection. My guess is I pay maybe $19.95 plus tax for the gadget in the retail store, take it home, then find it needs "activation", which is a stiff monthly fee? I know businessmen are really "thinking outside the box" these days, and will pull off anything to get someone to bite, then reel 'em in.
I've been seeing this ad for a "Micro Mechanic" bluetooth OBD reader, but being bitten by businesstalk, I don't know what they are really saying on the ad... like "free download"... I have had those... I could download it for free, but not run it. Just "activate" it, eh? Monthly fee? Termination agreement required? Have to surrender my banking credentials, name, and God knows what else they may demand, or just write off the little junklet I just paid for... brand new junklet. Do I have to load malware in my phone? I feel like I'm playing a game of three card monte with a street shyster every time I hear those TV ads.
Its really hard for me to trust marketers these days. Many of them seem to think that once I have paid for *anything*, I am now fair game for a feeding ( fee-ing) frenzy to herd me where they want me to go to cut my losses of giving them any money in the first place. If it involves any computer or phone, I have almost convinced myself that they *will* use my own technology as their enforcement agent for forcing yet more and more money from me in order to get what I paid for to work... kinda like getting involved in some sort of cult. Not at all like buying a drill motor from Home Depot.
So far, I have not bought any "smart" drill motors that tell me "Thank you for buying me, now just log onto www.gotchanow.com and do whatever they demand from you to activate me. You have shown you are a smart guy who leads the pack in adopting smart technology, and you may now show your friends and boss how smart your are!"
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30 2018, @03:40AM
Don't but those personal cloud devices then
does not work without an Internet connection