Re: Putting together a computer from old components

On 12/6/2021 5:57 AM, Spiros Bousbouras wrote:

> 
> Are you saying that the management engine serves anti-theft purposes ? How ?

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/05/intels-management-engine-security-hazard-and-users-need-way-disable-it

    "But troublingly, AMT is only one of many services/modules that come
     preinstalled on Management Engines. The best recommendation we can make for addressing
     this vulnerability today is to disable that specific AMT module, because Intel doesn’t
     provide any way to generally limit the power of the ME.

     But vulnerabilities in any of the other modules could be as bad, if not worse, for
     security. Some of the other modules include hardware-based authentication code and

         a system for location tracking and remote wiping of laptops for anti-theft purposes.

     While these may be useful to some people, it should be up to hardware owners to decide
     if this code will be installed in their computers or not. Perhaps most alarmingly,
     there is also reportedly a DRM module that is actively working against the user’s
     interests, and should never be installed in an ME by default.
    "

The description here doesn't even mention location tracking.
Instead, AMT locks up the laptop, preventing things like boot
from happening.

https://support.hp.com/ca-en/document/c02558764

The feature set then, is a function of what module happens
to be loaded in ME MINIX.

    Paul