Tired of installing intel me 12.0 software components? To download and install intel management engine firmware, there are quietly explained tutorials from Intel. For years, Intel has integrated technologies that theoretically help system administrators and enterprises control the hardware they manage, but one of these subsystems is particularly worrisome. This is the Intel Management Engine (ME), a troubling CPU located in each of the processors the manufacturer has recently developed.
Installing Intel ME 12.0 Software Components
Intel® Management Engine Driver for Windows 8.1* and Windows® 10 Supporting:
- 6th Generation Intel® Core™ Processor Family (Sky Lake)
- 7th Generation Intel® Core™ Processor Family (Kaby Lake)
- 8th Generation Intel® Core™ Processor Family (Kaby Lake R)
Intel support available for the following:
- Intel® Management Engine Firmware (Intel® ME FW)
- Intel® B150 Chipset
- Intel® B250 Chipset
- Intel® B360 Chipset
- Intel® B365 Chipset
- Intel® H110 Chipset
- Intel® H170 Chipset
- Intel® H270 Chipset
- Intel® H310 Chipset
- Intel® H370 Chipset
- Intel® Management Engine Interface (Intel® MEI)
- Intel® Q150 Chipset
- Intel® Q170 Chipset
- Intel® Q250 Chipset
- Intel® Q270 Chipset
- Intel® Q370 Chipset
- Intel® X299 Chipset
- Intel® Z170 Chipset
- Intel® Z270 Chipset
- Intel® Z370 Chipset
- Intel® Z390 Chipset
- Mobile Intel® HM170 Chipset
- Mobile Intel® HM175 Chipset
- Mobile Intel® HM370 Chipset
- Mobile Intel® QM170 Chipset
- Mobile Intel® QM175 Chipset
- Mobile Intel® QM370 Chipset
- Mobile Intel® QMS380 Chipset
What is the Intel Management Engine and how does it work?
The Intel Management Engine loads its code from the motherboard flash memory before loading the operating system, which means that it works practically from the moment you press the power button on your PC. To ensure proper operation, the Intel Management Engine has access to a limited amount of system memory and a small amount of cache, ensuring that it can operate completely independently of the operating system.
This brings many advantages to system administrators but also represents a great potential risk for possible cyberattacks that would use this subsystem to take full control of the devices without the user – or the machine itself – knowing anything about it. Some security experts call this a “-3 security ring” that goes beyond Level 0 (kernel mode), Level -1 (hypervisor), or Level -2 (SMM, system management mode) rootkits.
A potential risk for possible cyberattacks in Intel Management Engine firmware
Why is it disturbing? For the simple reason that hardly any details are known about this chip, which has almost unlimited powers to control the processor and cannot be audited: Its firmware is protected and several experts are now warning against the suspicion that such a chip might be created. For example, it would lead to attacks with completely undetectable rootkits.
Another feature of the Intel Management Engine that aims to ensure its operation as quickly as possible is that its power consumption is independent of the processor and the rest of the system. This means that the Intel Management Engine remains fully functional even when the entire computer is in a very deep sleep state. This feature allows you to respond to OOB commands from the IT management console without having to activate the rest of the system. This significantly reduces power consumption.
A chip that is too strong and unknown
A journal recently talked about Intel ME and how this technology is being sold as a management system for enterprise computers. These chips have a subsystem that is completely independent of the operating system we install on our computer, and which, among other things, provides a way to remotely control these computers.
Because Intel gives its ME remarkable capabilities, it is able to access any region of memory without the Intel SoC CPU being aware of the existence of these accesses, and even operates a TCP/IP server on our network interface, managing the entry and exit of data packets through ports that bypass security measures such as our system’s firewall.
intel management engine firmware is protected with RSA 2048 encryption
Especially the experts who warn of the potential dangers are in favor of another solution: the creation of an alternative open-source firmware that is testable and open to testing by other experts, precisely to increase their security and ensure that the use of this chip and its powerful features does not cause “evil”. In the meantime, we’d better wait until the first to find a vulnerability in Intel ME isn’t a bad guy. This could be fatal.
ME could be in the wrong hands like a supervitaminated rootkit. The Intel ME firmware is protected with RSA 2048 encryption, making it virtually unbreakable for security experts, crackers and cybercriminals, but that doesn’t mean you can never violate that security.
Related posts:
