For Intel Wi-Fi, FreeBSD includes the firmware out-of-the-box, many Linux distros do the same I'm sure.
You almost certainly cant transmit legally, though (unless you have a amateur radio license, which lets you do all sorts of stuff with useful amounts of power).
First, as a ham radio operator, no, you can't just go and start blasting away from an SDR even in the ham bands. You have to follow strict rules, including a non-commercial content rule and you must not use encryption. The ham bands are for people to experiment with new radio technologies and more importantly communicate with one another using those technologies on a hobbyist level -- encryption and commercial use does not help those goals.
That being said, there are chunks of radio spectrum that are effectively "public domain" where you can transmit within certain ERP (effective radiated power) limits without the ham band restrictions on content, protocol, etc. Traditional WiFi lives in one -- the block set aside for microwave cooking devices, and therefore with a near-unusable noise floor for anything but short range communication like household WiFi.
is it like a settings file?
Binwalk, IDA pro, etc. All the normal reverse engineering tools.
>are they a threat vector?
Absolutely.
>is it like a settings file?
No, it's code executing on the WiFi card.
Besides a hex editor, probably not.
> are they a threat vector?
As much as any other opaque software (i.e. not FOSS or otherwise transparent around source code auditing by arbitrary third parties). That is, in short: yes.
> is it like a settings file?
No, it's more like the operating system for the wireless card itself, running on the card's own microprocessor.
I believe system76 was less expensive but had blobs. Unsure about the hardware details.
Sorry, I call BS on that unless it was a long time ago, as in Core 2 Duo era.
As to booting, it originally shipped with a bios, but later offered coreboot which I believe disabled the ME.
https://puri.sm/posts/purism-librem-laptops-completely-disab...
Sorry, that means you've got a ME. Part of one (the BUP) but a required ME nonetheless:
--
I see now why your comment was so strongly worded...
"I know we would be interested in assisting System76 (or other prebuilt system OEMs) to start offering POWER products as true open source, owner controlled alternatives to Intel and AMD"
Although what you're doing is laudable, I think your form of communication might alienate the kinds of people who might support your mission.
This "neutralized" or "disabled" ME rumor is extremely persistent over literally years, probably due to feeding on what people want to hear versus what the reality of the situation is. Every time it's propagated not only does the person that believes it not get what they think they got, but it harms anyone trying to push for truly open computing vs. half-open computing.
The Cambridge English Dictionary states the following primary definition for the word "neutralize":
"1. to stop something from having an effect"
If you were to actually do that to the ME on a modern Intel system (or the PSP on a modern AMD system), here's what you would see:
<blank screen>
This is because the system will not come out of reset until at least the BUP (and for newer systems more ME modules as well) have started. Those modules are signed, proprietary binaries for which source code will never be released per Intel's statements.
So, we have an apparent conflict. How can the ME be "neutralized", according to the standard English definition, while your machine still starts (thereby proving the ME has had at least some required effect prior to coreboot launching)?
Qualcomm atheros?
and drivers are an important frontier of this. SO TIRED of downloading blobs to have wifi on linux. AFAIK there isn't even a usb wifi dongle that has an open source wifi driver, much less a commercial wifi chipset.
even companies that are in theory dedicated to quality are teetering on the edge of using software to enable planned obsolescence -- and also releasing unpleasant product changes in line with security updates.
coreboot particularly interesting because of the TOTP work people have been doing on the TPM for tamper detection.