3 ms·

I'm simply intrigued how this bit has managed to elude so many developers and hackers over the years. It's literally an option in an intel software tool, and ye

I'm simply intrigued how this bit has managed to elude so many developers and hackers over the years. It's literally an option in an intel software tool, and yet you have people who have vehemently complained about Intel ME for the past few years. I have some serious cognitive dissonance going on right now.

dmm 9y ago
The latest version of ME, 11, uses a x86 processor. That's why the researchers were able to perform this analysis and find the bit to flip. It also doesn't disable ME, just most of it.
- rubatuga 9y ago
  I see, it appears ME 11 was introduced in September 2015, which means this discovery came about in less than two years.
wolfgke 9y ago
> I'm simply intrigued how this bit has managed to elude so many developers and hackers over the years. Lots of hackers already knew that for many years - I would rather call it "common knowledge". But they had no idea what one could do to change anything about this. Just like "AMD PSP"/"AMD Secure Processor" - it is common knowledge that it exists, but we have no idea what it really does or how one can disable/disarm it. Or baseband processors - you can be pretty sure that there exist backdoors. I always tell people that they should throw away their mobile phones and love to say that they are bugging devices with integrated telephony functions - in this order; and this is true even if we do not assume any evil backdoors - for those reasons I don't own one. But people don't care. Or have you never considered why Intel pushed Wifi so much (Intel Centrino)? Doesn't Wifi (or "accidental" bugs in the chip firmware for it) look like a backdoor that can also be used over an air gap? If you need a further point on this: https://puri.sm/posts/hard-not-soft-kill-switches/ https://puri.sm/posts/hard-not-soft-kill-switches/ Why does the PCISIG M.2 NGFF standard require that a pin has to be pulled high do disable Wifi and Bluetooth? I always tell people that they should avoid Wifi and use ethernet instead. Also to no avail.
- milcron 9y ago
  Know what's even crazier? If the CPU has the "Intel® Anti-Theft Technology", then the Management Engine has 3G built-in.
  - wmf 9y ago
    It's probably more accurate to say that the ME can communicate with the 3G card if there is one installed.
    - milcron 9y ago
      You're right. Unfortunately HN won't let me edit my comment.

dmm 9y ago

The latest version of ME, 11, uses a x86 processor. That's why the researchers were able to perform this analysis and find the bit to flip. It also doesn't disable ME, just most of it.

rubatuga 9y ago
I see, it appears ME 11 was introduced in September 2015, which means this discovery came about in less than two years.

wolfgke 9y ago

> I'm simply intrigued how this bit has managed to elude so many developers and hackers over the years. Lots of hackers already knew that for many years - I would rather call it "common knowledge". But they had no idea what one could do to change anything about this. Just like "AMD PSP"/"AMD Secure Processor" - it is common knowledge that it exists, but we have no idea what it really does or how one can disable/disarm it. Or baseband processors - you can be pretty sure that there exist backdoors. I always tell people that they should throw away their mobile phones and love to say that they are bugging devices with integrated telephony functions - in this order; and this is true even if we do not assume any evil backdoors - for those reasons I don't own one. But people don't care. Or have you never considered why Intel pushed Wifi so much (Intel Centrino)? Doesn't Wifi (or "accidental" bugs in the chip firmware for it) look like a backdoor that can also be used over an air gap? If you need a further point on this: https://puri.sm/posts/hard-not-soft-kill-switches/ https://puri.sm/posts/hard-not-soft-kill-switches/ Why does the PCISIG M.2 NGFF standard require that a pin has to be pulled high do disable Wifi and Bluetooth? I always tell people that they should avoid Wifi and use ethernet instead. Also to no avail.

milcron 9y ago
Know what's even crazier? If the CPU has the "Intel® Anti-Theft Technology", then the Management Engine has 3G built-in.
- wmf 9y ago
  It's probably more accurate to say that the ME can communicate with the 3G card if there is one installed.
  - milcron 9y ago
    You're right. Unfortunately HN won't let me edit my comment.