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How can the functionality be implemented independently when the modules must be signed? Complete reverse engineering could at least serve as an effective audit
by hlandau 8y ago
How can the functionality be implemented independently when the modules must be signed?
Complete reverse engineering could at least serve as an effective audit though.
- vengefulduck 8y agoIt seems likely, to me anyway, that the CPU doesn't have any effective way of verifing what is running on the ME. So reversed firmware could just lie to the CPU and tell it that its firmware is signed when it isn't. A similar approch is use the microg project to replace proprietary google play services by spoofing google's signature.
- Kliment 8y agoThis is very difficult to do as the bit that loads the modules (and checks the signatures) is implemented in hardware.
- Kliment 8y agoNothing requires that the ME initializes the hardware - the BIOS can do so as well. So if the initialization sequence is well-understood the ME can be disabled entirely and the initialization done by coreboot or whatever. This is possible on Intel CPUs. Unfortunately on AMD it doesn't work as unless the secure coprocessor clears the reset lines the other cores cannot wake up.