An old classic Intel whisper blower is now supported by years of research

submitted by Vigte from youtube.com

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[–]happysmash27 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Is there a text-based summary? I am on mobile right now.

[–]Intuit 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Intel put a separate, proprietary processor into i3, i5, and i7 chips (at the very least). They call it Management Engine (ME). This runs its own proprietary OS. It has access to all the hardware, including monitoring what the main CPU is doing. It is running at all times, even when the computer is sleeping/hibernating. The main CPU can't tell what it's doing/monitoring. Since the ME runs its own OS, it can monitor things no matter what OS the user is running: Windows, Mac, Linux, etc., even Tails.

Never mind the "justified" uses of this, just consider that any insecurities in it open your machine to hacking by third parties.

[–]happysmash27 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I've known about Intel ME itself for a while, but what about the whisper blower, and is there any new information, for example, confirming it intentionally being a backdoor, or perhaps a remotely exploitable vulnerability even when the remote access is disabled in the BIOS?

[–]hennaojisan 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

So, if this concerns you, you need two computers, one Internet-connected and one not.

[–]Vigte[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Not that it was unobvious before - but just that it's more or less confirmed now.

Another feather in the cap of those who've been warning people for a while I guess...

[–]hennaojisan 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

For many years I've just assumed that they can see everything on my computer, but they'd probably be disappointed.