What if I told you that there is a special chip in your computer that has absolute control
over your entire system, is remotely accessible, has secret proprietary code that you can't
look at, and there's no way to disable it?
Well, it's true, and it's scary.
Let me introduce you to two things you've probably never heard of before: Intel Management
Engine, or Intel ME, and AMD Platform Security Processor.
Like I just said, these are essentially backdoors into almost every computer made in the past
10 years or so.
Intel and AMD swear up and down that they're only used for legitimate purposes, though
we have no choice but to take their word for it.
Let's start with the Intel Management Engine is an isolated, standalone co-processor that
is physically embedded in every Intel chipset.
To put it simply, it's like a mini-computer within your computer.
But the scary thing about it is that no one knows exactly what it does, because it's proprietary
code, and Intel has not released the source code.
Now it obviously has legitimate features that Intel has no problem talking about, but you
can't help but wonder if there's more to it.
Here is a list of things this hardware can do.
It can access ALL areas of your computer's RAM, completely bypassing the main CPU.
It has access to everything attached to your computer.
It can access your network interface to send and receive traffic, bypassing any firewall
in your operating system, or even if you're operating system isn't running at all!
And to top it all off, it can remotely power on and off your computer, so it's no surprise
that it can do all these things even if your computer is turned off.
Of course, if the rest of the computer is off, there isn't much it could do anyway since
your hard drive and memory aren't powered.
By now you might be thinking, what the hell?
Why does this even exist?
Well, it's main purpose is to allow you or a company system administrator to remotely
monitor, maintain, update, or repair your computer.
This is especially usful in companies, where they might manage thousands and thousands
of computers.
It doesn't make sense to go around to every single computer to install updates.
You really need to be able to do it remotely, in bulk, without requiring employees to do
anything themselves.
Now you might be thinking, well OK, that actually makes sense, I could see how it might be helpful.
But I don't need any of that, this is my own personal computer, so how do I disable it?
Well I've got bad news for you.
You can't.
And you can't buy an intel processor without one.
And as I mentioned before, you can't even escape it by going with an AMD processor.
You see they have their own version of this called the "Platform Security Processor" or
PSP.
It's a different implementation, but for the purposes of this video, they're close enough,
and it has the same super privledges as Intel ME.
It can basically control everything on your computer, and we have no idea what the actual
code is.
OK so all my computers have secret backdoor, great.
But my cell phone doesn't use AMD or Intel, so surely I'm safe....
WRONG.
Have you ever heard of a "baseband processor"?
Every cellphone has one, and it's purpose is basically to convert between digital signals
and radio signals for the phone's antenna.
So you NEED one of these for the phone to even work.
And yes, this also has low level access to all sorts of data on your phone.
But the most important thing to note is that just like Intel ME and AMD PSP, baseband processors
are all proprietary.
No matter what manufacturer makes the phone, they'll all have their own version of this
black-box processor that can't be accessed.
So at this point I'm sure most of you are thinking, OK, that's pretty creepy that every
computer I own has some sort of back door that I can't disable, but I really don't think
Intel and AMD are actually using this to spy.
But that's not the main issue here.
I mean yes, I agree that it's very unlikely that Intel and AMD are actually using this
to spy on people.
They'd have little to gain, and everything to lose if it was ever found out.
But it's not Intel and AMD we need to worry about.
You see, the REAL problem is the possibility that these special chips could be cracked
by some hacker group, or more likely some government.
These chips are obviously protected with some hardcore encryption, but that someone couldn't
discover some very clever exploit for it.
If THAT happened, they would potentially be able to take control of literally ANY computer
they wanted, remotely.
And no one would ever know, because they can't see into the chip in the first place, so they
wouldn't know it was exploited.
On top of that, because it bypasses the main processor altogether, there'd be no way to
stop it, and you wouldn't even know it's doing anything in the first place.
I don't even think you'd be able to defend against an attack on it either.
If you think about it, this thing has dedicated access to your network interface.
So if an attackere were to send you a malicious payload to your computer, even if it were
blocked by your software firewall, it might still go directly to the ME chip and infect
it.
By the way, you just KNOW that the government is trying to crack this technology.
I mean they'd be stupid not to.
It's like the HOLY GRAIL of hacks.
So the sheer magnitude of this risk outweighs whatever tiny probability that they'll exploit
it in a way that could be disastrous.
To give you an idea, I want you to imagine this.
You have this uncrackable safe, like the lock on this thing is truly perfect, can't be picked
and there's an infinite number of combinations, and also the walls of the case are made of
an imaginary metal that's impenitrable by any drill or tool known to man.
And in this safe, you put EVERYTHING YOU OWN.
And then you put this safe outside on your front doorstep, so anybody passing by can
walk up and look at this safe.
But not only that, EVERYONE in the entire world also has this same exact safe!
How much effort do you think someone like the government might dedicate to finding a
way into that safe?
How long do you think it would be before they find the TINIEST, most obscure, unthinkable
weakness that lets them open it.
Well sure it's going to take them a long time and a lot of work probably.
Maybe they find out that if they tilt the safe at exactly 0.25 radians and heat it up
to 100 degrees faranheit, and apply a magnetic field of 1 Tesla, that the door just falls
off.
I mean what are the odds that anyone would figure that out?
But really, with stuff like this, it's not a matter
of if, but when.
Some of you may be familiar with a concept called "Security Through Obscurity", where
the basic idea is that if you hide something well enough, or keep it's design a complete
secret, that no one can exploit it because they don't know anything about it.
And it's not always a bad idea actually.
Kind of like how you might hide your money in the pages of a book on your shelf instead
of in a safe in your closet.
You're betting that the chance of someone finding it THERE is less than the chance they'd
be able to open whatever safe you put it in.
In computer security there are some advantages and disadvantages you might argue with security
through obscurity as opposed to open source.
The argument for open source is that because everyone can look at the code, good guys can
then find any exploits and report them to be fixed.
Whereas if the code is proprietary, bad guys might be the only ones who find the exploits,
and obviously never report them.
On the other hand, the argument for obscurity is that if code is open sourced, exploits
are more likely to be found in the first place, and there's no guarantee that the good guys
will be the ones finding them.
And also, bad guys might be more willing to spend time searching for these exploits since
they get way more out of finding them.
I think both arguments can be valid depending on the situation.
But the main thing to know is that no matter what you do, you can never be 100% truly secure
no matter how hard you try.
For example, you might have the strongest password ever, but if someone puts a gun to
your head, you're going to give it up.
Going back to the main topic of this video, this means that it doesn't matter how supposedly
secure these chips are.
Just their existence poses a risk.
But before you get too worried, there is a shred of hope.
In a reddit thread, AMD said that executive level attention would be given to looking
into the possibility of releasing the sourcecode for their Platform Security Processor.
To be clear, they didn't say they would do it, they didn't even say they might do it,
but they did say "this has CEO level attention and AMD is investigating the steps and resources
necessary to support this."
So you're saying there's a chance.
We'll have to see.
If they did release the source code, it would not only allow the code to be audited for
exploits, but possibly allow it to be disabled altogether if you want.
Which honestly I don't know why there isn't the option to do so already.
So now that we've seen the light of just how exposed we could be, no matter how small the
possibility, what can we do about it?
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Seriously.
It doesn't matter what operating system you use, there's no special command to turn it
off, and if you phyiscally go in and break it somehow, your computer will refuse to boot.
Really the only thing you can do is follow the usual advice for securing your computer
every other way, and hope for the best.
So yea I hate to stop it there but that's really it.
Hopefully this video didn't freak you out too much.
Be sure to let me know what you think, and if you want to keep watching you can click
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Also if you want to subscribe I make new videos three times a week, tuesday thursday saturday.
So it should be worth it.
So as usual thanks for watching, I'll see you next time, have a good one