On Tue, 5 Sep 2017 at 20:14:04 +0200 mdn <bernardl...@openmailbox.org> wrote:
> Hello, > To make some precisions: > -The "High Assurance Platform" belongs to a trusted platform program > linked to the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). A graphics-rich > presentation describing the program can be found here. > http://fm.csl.sri.com/LAW/2009/dobry-law09-HAP-Challenges.pdf It's available at the Internet Archive's Wayback machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20121211162830/http://fm.csl.sri.com/LAW/2009/dobry-law09-HAP-Challenges.pdf > note: the link is dead but I have a backup of the pdf. > If someone needs it just ask. > > -More parts of the ME can be removed thanks to this discovery. > > -The removed part makes the ME go into "TemporaryDisable mode" which is > undocumented, like a lot of of undocumented instructions > https://github.com/xoreaxeaxeax/sandsifter/raw/master/references/domas_breaking_the_x86_isa_wp.pdf. > > -This "TemporaryDisable mode" allows the CPU to initialize without the > ME activated. > > -This hack doesn't work on Apollo Lake platforms. > > So it doesn't remove the ME it "neutralises" it and for what remains we > can only hope that nothing reinitialise it afterwards since the > instruction is called Temporary Disable mode. There are many things that can be removed, as stated in the same provided URL: Setting the HAP bit The aforementioned facts help to reveal the second method of disabling Intel ME: 1. Set the HAP bit. 2. In the CPD section of the FTPR, remove or damage all modules except those required by BUP for startup: RBE KERNEL SYSLIB dBUP 3. Fix the checksum of the CPD header (for more details on the structure of ME firmware, see this paper). > Imo seeing the awful state of X86 platforms, POWER is our only hope to > own what we buy. Not the only one. We also have ARM from a number of producers and Chinese and Russian RISC CPUS. -- Alessandro Selli http://alessandro.route-add.net VOIP SIP: dhatarat...@ekiga.net Chiavi PGP/GPG keys: B7FD89FD, 4A904FD9 _______________________________________________ Dng mailing list Dng@lists.dyne.org https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
