Remotely exploitable firmware vulnerability in all Intel chipsets

[Ben Scott]

This is potentially very bad for many people, as this is presumably exposed
outside the firewall on the computer, and is OS-independent.

That means any laptop that leaves a firewalled LAN is exposed to a remote
root exploit.

The Intel "Management Engine" (ME) runs along side the main processor.  It
piggybacks on the network ports, and can read/write any memory or disk
location in the system.  If an attacker can gain control of the ME, they
can do whatever they want, outside the OS.

Reportedly some (most?) chipsets are vulnerable even if you're not using
the ME or have it nominally disabled.  Even when not vulnerable to remote
attack, everything is locally vulnerable.

It appears firmware fixes have to come from the motherboard vendor.

https://m.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/01/intel_amt_me_vulnerability/

https://security-center.intel.com/advisory.aspx?intelid=INTE
L-SA-00075&languageid=en-fr

-- Ben
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