I've been hearing about Intel’s Active Management Technology for years, but I'd like to see a demonstration of how an attack would work. I have an unused laptop with: 1. an Intel CPU that supports the vPro feature set 2. an Intel networking card 3. the corporate version of the Intel Management Engine (Intel ME) binary (well, definitely, a corporate laptop that used to get updates, but how do I check for ME?) Is there…
Absence of evidence is not the evidence for absence. If the backdoor exists you will need to know a secret to open it. Currently, the public obviously doesn't know this secret or the doors would be wide open for virtually anybody. Because we don't know the secret key, we cannot open them to prove that they exist. So we don't know for sure if the backdoors exist. But the way the IME is designed and handled makes it po…
Even 14 years ago the FBI was using off cellphones as microphones, recording in-person conversations in a restaurant between some Mafia targets. It was acknowledged during a criminal trial, which means it was probably old-hat by then:
> Kaplan's opinion said that the eavesdropping technique "functioned whether the phone was powered on or off."
> He ruled that the "roving bug" was legal because federal wiretapping law is broad enough to permit eavesdropping even of conversations that take place near a suspect's cell phone.
https://www.cnet.com/news/fbi-taps-cell-phone-mic-as-eavesdr...
Getting access to laptops/PCs regardless of power state with long-term persistence and very low detectability, regardless of traditional OS monitoring, would be top of the list in terms of requirements for any intelligence agency.