Benutzername
2020-10-29, 19:09:39
War ja nur eine Frage der Zeit, bis jemand die IME für etwas anderes Management benutzt. Falls jemand schon immer mal den Intel Microcode selbst patchen wollte, jetzt kann man das zumindest für die kleinen Goldmont Atoms, Celerons und Atoms tun:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/10/in-a-first-researchers-extract-secret-key-used-to-encrypt-intel-cpu-code/
Researchers have extracted the secret key that encrypts updates to an assortment of Intel CPUs, a feat that could have wide-ranging consequences for the way the chips are used and, possibly, the way they’re secured.
The key makes it possible to decrypt the microcode updates Intel provides to fix security vulnerabilities and other types of bugs. Having a decrypted copy of an update may allow hackers to reverse-engineer it and learn precisely how to exploit the hole it’s patching. The key may also allow parties other than Intel—say a malicious hacker or a hobbyist—to update chips with their own microcode, although that customized version wouldn’t survive a reboot.
(...)
The genesis for the discovery came three years ago when Goryachy and Ermolov found a critical vulnerability, indexed as Intel SA-00086, that allowed them to execute code of their choice inside the independent core of chips that included a subsystem known as the Intel Management Engine. Intel fixed the bug and released a patch, but because chips can always be rolled back to an earlier firmware version and then exploited, there’s no way to effectively eliminate the vulnerability.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/10/in-a-first-researchers-extract-secret-key-used-to-encrypt-intel-cpu-code/
Researchers have extracted the secret key that encrypts updates to an assortment of Intel CPUs, a feat that could have wide-ranging consequences for the way the chips are used and, possibly, the way they’re secured.
The key makes it possible to decrypt the microcode updates Intel provides to fix security vulnerabilities and other types of bugs. Having a decrypted copy of an update may allow hackers to reverse-engineer it and learn precisely how to exploit the hole it’s patching. The key may also allow parties other than Intel—say a malicious hacker or a hobbyist—to update chips with their own microcode, although that customized version wouldn’t survive a reboot.
(...)
The genesis for the discovery came three years ago when Goryachy and Ermolov found a critical vulnerability, indexed as Intel SA-00086, that allowed them to execute code of their choice inside the independent core of chips that included a subsystem known as the Intel Management Engine. Intel fixed the bug and released a patch, but because chips can always be rolled back to an earlier firmware version and then exploited, there’s no way to effectively eliminate the vulnerability.