5 ms·
It's a slightly biased analysis: > Can open source firmware projects benefit from leaked content? > Unfortunately, no or rarely. > Individuals or organizatio
by csdvrx 4y ago
It's a slightly biased analysis:
> Can open source firmware projects benefit from leaked content?
> Unfortunately, no or rarely.
> Individuals or organizations that are not eligible to sign CNDA with Intel, such as open source firmware maintainers. Please note that open source firmware projects cannot directly benefit/reuse from leaked content due to legal risks
A direct reuse of everything is unlikely, but access to the material might lead to many interesting tools.
Simple example: undervolting (to save battery and reduce heat) was taken away by intel because plundervolt allowed attacks against the SGX enclave.
SGX has now been abandoned by Intel, but undervolting remains impossible.
If I ever get an Alder Lake, would I look for a way to enable that on my laptop? Yes!
Do I fear legal risks of altering the functionality of the hardware I purchased? No, thanks to the consequences of the first sale doctrine.
> Binary blobs: It’s worth noting that in addition to the binary blobs required by various devices (Bluetooth BLE, WiFi, Ethernet, etc.), there are three different ACMs for security features: BiosGuard, BootGuard, and TXT
> In addition, one thing should be noted that the key pairs required by BootGuard during provisioning stage is also included in the leaked content
So there's everything I would need to understand, patch then flash my own alterations? Great! I'm even more interested now!!
> the data center should prepare
> Short-term plan:
> Security team and patch management team should work together to ensure critical devices are upgraded to the latest version
And IMHO the individual interested in future attempts to reclaim full ownership of their hardware should prepare in a very different way, by:
- downloading a copy of the current BIOS binary update (and the last few versions, just to be on the safe side)
- blocking BIOS updates ("capsules" etc) in the BIOS
- in the OS, uninstalling the tools that allow such updates (ex: Lenovo Vantage)
- ideally, even switching to Linux, as Microsoft can package drivers updates with the BIOS, and if it's that big one of these drivers may include code from Intel using unusual ways to forcefully apply upgrades, that would bypass the methods you can control if the binary is delivered and run on your hardware (ex: Intel ME)
I really like Windows, and "security" in general, but I like the idea of having features like Undervolt even more!
- amluto 4y ago> SGX has now been abandoned by Intel, but undervolting remains impossible. SGX only really appears to be abandoned on client chips. SGX is a critical part of TDX, which is brand new.
- matheusmoreira 4y agoIt's insulting enough that Intel can "take away" features... And we can't even replace their code with our own.
- j-bos 4y agoFor someone with a passing curiosity, but limited time and skill atm. Where would we download the source code and previous updates?
- userbinator 4y agoYou mean security, not "security". The former is securing your own hardware against others, the latter is others securing the hardware against you. Unfortunately the corporates are more interested in promoting the latter than the former.
- chx 4y agoIt is, not to put a fine point on it, an absolute asshole move. They could have merely disabled the GUI element which enables the undervolting. This would've made it so you need tools like http://ruexe.blogspot.com/ http://ruexe.blogspot.com/ to edit the EFI variable which firmly put it outside of the reach of the average consumer but still makes it possible. But no, the EFI variable is protected and unless you manage to break the firmware it's impossible to change it. Sigh.