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Any reason Intel doesn't just offer IME-free CPUs too? There's obviously interest considering the lengths organisations like Google go to to disable it and Inte

Any reason Intel doesn't just offer IME-free CPUs too? There's obviously interest considering the lengths organisations like Google go to to disable it and Intel supposedly already has such offers for governments.

microcolonel 9y ago
ME is a useful part of the system. It is in charge of watchdog timers (I think) and mid-level power management. The problem is that it is persistent and opaque. If the operating system were responsible for configuring and managing ME, it would allow it to perform these tasks without being so odious.
- majewsky 9y ago
  Why does it need access to all RAM for watchdog timers and mid-level power management?
  - cyphar 9y ago
    It also facilitates some hardware bring-up, and has management (hence the name) functionalities. So it's not really surprising that it has access to everything. That's not to say that it's at all acceptable that modern machines have such a gigantic security flaw.
exikyut 9y ago
> the lengths organisations like Google go to to disable it TIL about this detail. Where can I learn more? EDIT: So this is now at 0 points. Interesting...
- jjevanoorschot 9y ago
  A recent talk [0] by Ronald Minnich from Google gives a nice overview of their efforts to replace parts of Intel ME and UEFI with Linux, mostly for security reasons. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iffTJ1vPCSo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iffTJ1vPCSo
- drewg123 9y ago
  https://firmwaresecurity.com/tag/google/ https://firmwaresecurity.com/tag/google/
mathattack 9y ago
The govt may have forced them into putting it there.