[Cryptography] Intel Management Engine pwnd

[Henry Baker]

At 07:56 PM 12/1/2017, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
>| From: Henry Baker <hbaker1 at pipeline.com>
>! Ever since I got my latest Windoze laptop last year, I noticed that it
>! didn't retain all of its battery charge when *powered down*.
>
>I'm not sure if this is what you are talking about.
>
><https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InstantGo>
>
>I have a device (Dell Venue 11 Pro) that implements this.
>
>And it doesn't implement normal "sleep" mode (the Wikipedia article claims that the IntstantGo specification forbids support for Sleep and Hibernate modes).

What I'm talking about is a machine that refuses to "shut down" -- i.e., reach a state where there's no OS (supposed to be) operating at all.  We're not talking about "sleep" mode or "hibernation" mode; we're supposed to be "dead", as in 0xdeadbeef.  This is supposed to be a state which requires a *boot*, not a *wakeup*.

>Microsoft, Intel, and PC manufacturers seem to copy bad features of the phone and tablet world.
>Perhaps envy will be the death of them.

Microsoft/Intel forgot that their customers were actual human beings, not TLA's and corporate purchasing agents.  Perhaps Google/Facebook should wake up before they, too, find themselves on the dustbin of history.

(BTW, isn't it ironic that even with all of Microsoft's & Intel's "ME"-type "management" nonsense, none of this intrusive surveillance helped when it was most needed -- the Sony hack, the Equifax hack, and 25 other high-profile hacks.  Yet more proof that back doors never help even on good days, and fail spectacularly on bad days.)

I don't care about tablets or touch screens; I simply want a laptop that runs Linux that I can carry around.

System76[*] is looking better and better all the time.

"All of this has culminated in the System76 plan to address Intel's November 20th vulnerability announcement and our ability to respond to future firmware update needs."

"System76 will automatically deliver updated firmware with a disabled ME on Intel 6th, 7th, and 8th Gen laptops. The ME provides no functionality for System76 laptop customers and is safe to disable."

[*] http://blog.system76.com/post/168050597573/system76-me-firmware-updates-plan