News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on I want a computer that I own. Parent comment

Re:I want a computer that I own by chasil on Tuesday March 09, 2021 @10:13AM (#26399518)
The Intel Core 2 Duo/Quad was the last CPU where the "Management Engine" could be completely wiped and disabled.

This is my experience in removing the ARC firmware code from two different HP desktops (I attached both BIOS images):

https://github.com/corna/me_cleaner/issues/233

These PCs are quite inexpensive. I run OpenBSD with hardened Chrome on one of them, for all of my finances.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:I want a computer that I own by Zetaphor on Tuesday March 09, 2021 @10:31AM (#26399724)
If you're going through all that effort, then why bothering with hardening Chrome? Why wouldn't you start with Firefox, which doesn't require unGoogling to be considered secure?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:I want a computer that I own by chasil on Tuesday March 09, 2021 @10:43AM (#26399869)
OpenBSD's Chrome had pledge() first, but you're right, I should consider Firefox.

However, there was a recent Firefox bug in OpenBSD, and the patches weren't applied uniformly. It does seem that Chrome is more consistent, and gets more attention.

https://undeadly.org/cgi?action=article;sid=20200109141600

[ Parent | on HN ]