The Intel ME subsystem can take over your machine, can't be audited

Re:The Intel ME subsystem can take over your machine, can't ... by rekado on Thursday June 16, 2016 @02:40AM (#11914433)

You don't have to. Libreboot is available for some Thinkpads. I use an X200s. There are businesses that offer Libreboot flashing services or sell refurbished Laptops with Libreboot installed.

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Re:The Intel ME subsystem can take over your machine, can't ... by yoo1I on Thursday June 16, 2016 @02:56AM (#11914478)

Except libreboot doesn't help. ME executes below BIOS/UEFI.

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Re:The Intel ME subsystem can take over your machine, can't ... by SXX on Thursday June 16, 2016 @03:12AM (#11914537)

That's not the case. ME code is large and not bundled inside CPU. On old systems it's was possible to not provide ME firmware while keep CPU operational.

On modern systems it's will just poweroff every 30 minutes if ME firmware not present and this is why libreboot won't support any newer hardware.

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Re:The Intel ME subsystem can take over your machine, can't ... by jacquesm on Thursday June 16, 2016 @05:07AM (#11914906)

> On modern systems it's will just poweroff every 30 minutes if ME firmware not present

That's highly suggestive of a hidden agenda.

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Re:The Intel ME subsystem can take over your machine, can't ... by kuschku on Thursday June 16, 2016 @09:06AM (#11915804)

You can still turn ME into "manufacturing test mode", where it will not execute things.

But in that mode Intel Network Cards will poweroff every 3 minutes.

I wondered why my I219-V didn’t work, until I found it worked with ME in normal mode.

Now I’m back on a 2006 100M Realtek NIC

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Re:The Intel ME subsystem can take over your machine, can't ... by etatoby on Thursday June 16, 2016 @03:09PM (#11918182)

> in that mode Intel Network Cards will poweroff every 3 minutes

This is ridiculous. This is not a rootkit waiting to happen, it's already an operational rootkit!

What is this company trying to achieve? Is this a military asset designed to attack foreign countries? Is the Cold War not over?

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Re:The Intel ME subsystem can take over your machine, can't ... by kuschku on Thursday June 16, 2016 @05:13PM (#11918905)

And, even worse, why is there not yet a startup competing with Intel in the desktop market?

Are fabs the issues? Knowledge? Engineers? I mean, Uber got many billions in funding, with Ubers funding one could build easily a fab for 14nm process and hire all of AMD.

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Re:The Intel ME subsystem can take over your machine, can't ... by nitrogen on Thursday June 16, 2016 @01:29PM (#11917571)

Will it also shut down add-in cards in a PCIe slot?

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Re:The Intel ME subsystem can take over your machine, can't ... by kuschku on Thursday June 16, 2016 @01:48PM (#11917695)

Nope, that’s why my 2006 Realtek card works.

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Re:The Intel ME subsystem can take over your machine, can't ... by nitrogen on Thursday June 16, 2016 @07:30PM (#11919751)

I guess I should have specified Intel add-on cards, but it's easy enough to buy non-Intel.

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Re:The Intel ME subsystem can take over your machine, can't ... by etatoby on Thursday June 16, 2016 @03:04PM (#11918153)

Yes. What on earth would be the non-malicious purpose of this feature?

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Re:The Intel ME subsystem can take over your machine, can't ... by yuvadam on Thursday June 16, 2016 @04:41AM (#11914810)

Wrong. On some machines, such as the X200, you can actually remove and disable the ME with coreboot/libreboot.

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Re:The Intel ME subsystem can take over your machine, can't ... by yoo1I on Thursday June 16, 2016 @06:46AM (#11915258)

Interesting, I understood that wrong then. But granted, I was researching it for the x220 and it was a while ago. Thanks for the hint.

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