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Old 11-30-2017, 02:50 PM   #29 (permalink)
freebeard
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It's been years since I dealt with that stuff, now-a-days I'm a simple meme farmer.

Winchester disks are mapped into tracks with sectors. And servo tracks and spare sectors. None of that pertains to memory sticks and SSDs. I got two 16Gb memory sticks for $8 each. They were wrapped in cellophane when I got them, but I consider them one step short of finding them on the ground in a parking lot. I wish I had the forensic tools available to me in the 1990s (Norton Utilities/Norton Disk editor) to examine them before I insert them into anything world facing.

I also have a computer I bought 2nd hand that I haven't plugged in yet while I process through the five stages of finding out about IME.

edit:
The Vulture offers some reassurance:

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/0...vulnerability/

And says it can be exploited via USB.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/1...sten_dump_ime/

Quote:
Bootnote

The IME is able to control a computer because it runs an OS of its own, namely MINIX: a small and simple microkernel system designed to teach computer-science students how hardware and operating systems work. And it turns out that while Intel talked to MINIX's creator about using it, the tech giant never got around to saying it had put it into recent CPU chipsets it makes.

Which has the permissively licensed software's granddaddy, Professor Andrew S. Tanenbaum, just a bit miffed. As Tanenbaum wrote this week in an open letter to Intel CEO Brian Krzanich:...
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Last edited by freebeard; 11-30-2017 at 03:16 PM..
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