[libreplanet-discuss] The Intel ME/AMT/vPro vulnerability, mitigation and airport scans

[Daniel Pocock]

The recent AMT/vPro exploit[1] has helped shine a light on this
problem.  Has anybody seen any evidence that anything is changing
though, either in what vendors are offering or in terms of how companies
buy technology?

Over the last few years, people have been trained to separate their
laptops for security scanning at airports.  More recently, some airports
are opening/waking the laptops before they go through the x-ray: while
ME doesn't require a computer to be on, maybe some
vulnerabilities/back-doors can only be exploited while it is awake?

It is not hard to imagine some of these x-ray machines may be designed
to exploit vulnerabilities like that which was recently acknowledged by
Intel.

Has anybody seen any evidence that this is taking place systematically?

Then again, would there be anything special about exploiting them at
airports?  Would a chain of fast food or coffee stores "enhance" their
wifi access points to access the ME capabilities of laptops brought into
their premises or has anybody noticed if that is already happening?

Regards,

Daniel


1.
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-technology/intel-amt-vulnerability-announcement.html