Have the new hardwares more backdoor?

I read a comment of @thoring_around
And i want to know what the people thinking about that.

He said: “if the hardware is new and it’s produced in one of the western countries(not limited to them tho), no matter what you do - you have hardware backdoor”

(If it’s true, than the ASUS KCMA-D8 Motherboard better than the MSI PRO Z690-A.)

Currently I cannot verify if the quote is true, since the original post has been flagged.

https://forum.qubes-os.org/t/why-does-qubes-support-mostly-intel-computers-which-have-me/20647/10

Even if the quote is exactly as stated, it is also vague and has no citations. The burden of proof for their claim is on them.

fallged, because he used not nice words

Your quote suggests otherwise.

Looks all nice to me, and relatively easy to read.

Jesus! The quote is just a part of the full comments.

Okay, assuming your claim is also true, then simply wait until @thoring_around responds to this thread with more details and citations to back up their claim.

Jesus… I want to know what the people think about that. Not just @thoring_around !!! JESUS!!!

You are not a Sharlock Holmes @FranklyFlawless. PLEASE ADMIN! HOW CAN I BLOCK HERE PEOPLE??? :rofl:

As far as I know, there is no evidence suggesting new hardware produced in western countries or elsewhere have hardware backdoors, regardless of actions taken by the individual. So if there is a counter-claim from @thoring_around or someone else, they will need citations to back them up.

There is no need for backdoors if there are enough bugdoors.

3 Likes

If my memory serves me correctly, IME has an entire Minix-like operating system accessible through one magic UDP port on the main network interface. Pinging on that interface the installed OS will never see that packet because it is instead consumed by that internal OS and not passed through to the main system. IME relies on this port to manage your system, if you paid the licensing fees to enable that capability. I see this as just another way to extract money from your pocket.

Yes, there could be a significant trove of software bugs hidden in that ME internal OS which nobody but Intel is able to test. There should be a Jtag interface on the motherboard for this. You know that those bugs are not being patched, or even reported.

As far as mitigation I have to wonder why deactivating that UDP port would not be enough. For those who can extract the binary running inside IME I would think this should be child’s play. With no controlling port there would be no way to contact the internals to do your dirty work. The threat of some 3-letter agency of secretly snooping on you would be completely mitigated without having to mess with the internal code that initializes the system and its pretrials. Just drop those management packets on the floor. Problem solved.

1 Like