[Cryptography] Intel Management Engine pwnd

[Dave Horsfall]

On Fri, 1 Dec 2017, Henry Baker wrote:

>>> So clearly, something below the operating system continues to run, and 
>>> run quite vigorously, in order to continue running down the battery.
>>
>> Well, at the very least it has to maintain the time...
>
> :-)

Thank you; someone understands my warped sense of humour :-)

> My laptop has a little coin battery (separate from the laptop's regular 
> battery) just to keep the time.
>
> But you already knew that...

As we seem to be discussing healthy paranoia here (the whole reason for 
crypto, of course) with mention of hardware that does not switch off when 
you tell it to, here's a few more to keep you awake at night:

My DECT cordless handsets (I have three of them) do not have a power 
switch at all; are they still transmitting even though they are in the 
cradle?

My iPad does not have a power switch either; what's it doing when I think 
it's asleep?

My Android phone has a "soft" power switch, but the battery is still 
draining; what's it doing?

Although I've taped over the camera on my Acer laptop (running Debian), I 
can't find its microphone; it has a "soft" power switch too.

And although I've similarly taped over the camera on my MacBook, the audio 
chip seems to be broken (well, it's not found, but how do I know it's not 
still working?) but I've blocked off its mic.

-- 
Dave Horsfall DTM (VK2KFU)  "Those who don't understand security will suffer."