Did I misunderstand or didn't someone find a way to neuter and/or disable Intel ME by setting the NSA High Assurance bit?
I think it only works for older versions of IME.
Why is the latest Intel hardware unsupported in libreboot? (2017)
11–20 of 132 posts
Re: Why is the latest Intel hardware unsupported in libreboot? (2017)
#12Realistically if some party made use of these backdoors regularly someone would probably have noticed the traffic already.
You have smartphones uploading location data and browser history every day for years and it almost goes unnoticed.
Re: Why is the latest Intel hardware unsupported in libreboot? (2017)
#13Realistically if some party made use of these backdoors regularly someone would probably have noticed the traffic already.
You have smartphones uploading location data and browser history every day for years and it almost goes unnoticed.
That’s not a secret, it’s pretty well known. It only takes one person to notice.
Re: Why is the latest Intel hardware unsupported in libreboot? (2017)
#14Libreboot is making a strong case for using open firmware in systems, yet it supports only a limited set of mostly outdated system boards. Isn't that a sign that it failed? After so many years?
Don't get me wrong, I definitely support the idea of open firmware and I would gladly adopt libreboot and replace any BIOS firmware on all of my systems. But, not a single system (Intel ME in all of them) is supported. I could donate some of my systems, and money, but how would that help? 20 years of efforts (including the efforts of coreboot) don't seem to have generated any adoption rate. Or is there some info I didn't get?
Re: Why is the latest Intel hardware unsupported in libreboot? (2017)
#15This is why I have an Apple Powermac G5 or two stored in my basement. These run entirely free of that backdoor.
Re: Why is the latest Intel hardware unsupported in libreboot? (2017)
#16Realistically if some party made use of these backdoors regularly someone would probably have noticed the traffic already.
You have smartphones uploading location data and browser history every day for years and it almost goes unnoticed.
How can this go unnoticed when it is common knowledge? There is difference between don't know and don't care. So far the people that care are a tiny vocal minority. Unfortunately.
Re: Why is the latest Intel hardware unsupported in libreboot? (2017)
#17AMD's in a similar boat, if you scroll a bit further down too :(
Yea, that was disappointing indeed. After reading the first several paragraphs,
I was hoping that the answer would be get an AMD processor instead of Intel , but nope.
I hope that in the future some manufacturer(s) start making fully open source verifiably secure RISC-V (or ARM) processors, and that we have a migration over to that.
Re: Why is the latest Intel hardware unsupported in libreboot? (2017)
#18Libreboot is making a strong case for using open firmware in systems, yet it supports only a limited set of mostly outdated system boards. Isn't that a sign that it failed? After so many years? Don't get me wrong, I definitely support the idea of open firmware and I would gladly adopt libreboot and replace any BIOS firmware on all of my systems. But, not a single system (Intel ME in all of them) is supported. I could…
In order for libreboot or coreboot to support a system, that system must be almost entirely reverse engineered. As Intel shoved more and more functionality into ME, they also ramped up how aggressively they protected those parts of the system. There is significant crypto involved at this point, and Intel considers almost every component a trade secret to be fiercely protected. It's almost impossible to get access to this information, even under NDA, even as a hardware manufacturer (i.e. system OEMs).
It's not for lack of trying; the lack of adoption is because Intel is actively hostile to efforts like these and they hold all the cards.
Re: Why is the latest Intel hardware unsupported in libreboot? (2017)
#19Libreboot is making a strong case for using open firmware in systems, yet it supports only a limited set of mostly outdated system boards. Isn't that a sign that it failed? After so many years? Don't get me wrong, I definitely support the idea of open firmware and I would gladly adopt libreboot and replace any BIOS firmware on all of my systems. But, not a single system (Intel ME in all of them) is supported. I could…
Did ARM fail because there are still billions of 8052 around? Did 8052 fail because there are now billions of ARM devices?
Re: Why is the latest Intel hardware unsupported in libreboot? (2017)
#20This is why I have an Apple Powermac G5 or two stored in my basement. These run entirely free of that backdoor.
How does it help that they're in your basement? Are you using them for anything? If not, when will you know to switch to them?
What's the threat model and what would be your signal to go start using them and abandoning your presumably more modern system, and how would you keep the software on them secure? Will you use Gentoo, given that Debian has dropped PPC?