Some juicy reverse engineering was done on the ME back in 2014 from REcon. And HackaDay had a great writeup in 2016. It's real and the dominant architecture in all data centers. It has complete access to the computer.
There are no known vulnerabilities in the ME to exploit right now: we’re all locked out of the ME. But that is security through obscurity. Once the ME falls, everything with an Intel chip will fall. It is, by far, the scariest security threat today, and it’s one that’s made even worse by our own ignorance of how the ME works.
AMD does not have this type of management engine by default on their products at least not the same functionality or enabled by default as far as I know. For the most part, it is mostly enterprise class that has the ME onboard so unless you are using a Dell XPS you are safe.
Very true, the difference is that Intel is the dominant platform. Intel is in every data center in the order of 90%. AMD is small potatoes in the enterprise world.
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EatDaP00P00 ago
Some juicy reverse engineering was done on the ME back in 2014 from REcon. And HackaDay had a great writeup in 2016. It's real and the dominant architecture in all data centers. It has complete access to the computer.
AMD does not have this type of management engine by default on their products at least not the same functionality or enabled by default as far as I know. For the most part, it is mostly enterprise class that has the ME onboard so unless you are using a Dell XPS you are safe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kCICUPc9_8 <- Recon presentation
https://hackaday.com/2016/01/22/the-trouble-with-intels-management-engine/
glennvtx ago
AMD does also have a similar system, just didn't get the press.
EatDaP00P00 ago
Very true, the difference is that Intel is the dominant platform. Intel is in every data center in the order of 90%. AMD is small potatoes in the enterprise world.