let me ask you this what if I told you
that there was 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 actually pretty scary let me
introduce you to two things you've
probably never heard of before
Intel management engine or Intel Emmys
and AMD platform security processor like
I just said these are essentially
backdoors into almost every computer
made in the past ten years or so Intel
and AMD swear up and down they're only
used for legitimate purposes so we have
no choice but to take their word for it
first let's talk about what these
actually are starting with Intel
management engine it's basically a
isolated standalone code processor that
is physically embedded into every Intel
chipset to put it simply it's like a
mini computer within your computer but
the scariest thing about it is that no
one knows exactly what it does because
it's got proprietary code and Intel has
not released that source code now
obviously it has legitimate features
that Intel I have no problem talking
about but you can't help but wonder if
there's a little bit more to it here's a
list of things that this hardware can do
it has access to all of your computer's
RAM completely bypassing the main CPU it
has access to everything attached to
your computer every peripheral it can
access your network interface to send
and receive traffic also bypassing the
firewall in your operating system or
even if your 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 also 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 turned off there
isn't much it could do anyway since your
hard drive and memory are empowered but
still by now you might be thinking what
the hell why does this even exist why
does this chip have access to everything
why can't I disable it
well it's main purpose is to allow you
or a company system administrator to
remotely monitor maintain update or
repair your computer so for example this
is a special
useful in companies where they might
manage thousands and thousands of
computers it doesn't make sense to go
around every single computer in person
to install updates you really need to be
able to do it remotely in bulk without
requiring employees to do anything them
sell so you might also think okay that
actually makes sense I could see how it
might be helpful for some people 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 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 platform security
processor or PST and it's a different
implementation but for the purposes of
this video they're close enough it has
the same super privileges as Intel ME it
can basically control everything on your
computer and we have no idea what the
actual code is the next thing you guys
would probably say is ok so all my
computers have a secret backdoor great
but at least my cell phone doesn't use
AMD or Intel so surely I'm safe wrong
have you ever heard of a baseband
processor probably not every cell phone
has one and its purpose is to convert
between digital signals and radio
signals for the sones antenna so you
need one of these for your phone to even
work and yes this one also has low-level
access to all sorts of data on your
phone but the most important thing to
note about this is just like Intel Emmy
and AMD PSP baseband processors are all
proprietary so no matter what
manufacturer makes the phone they all
have their own version of this blackbox
processor that can't be accessed but can
control your device so most of you would
probably say alright that's really
creepy that every computer I own has
some sort of backdoor 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 almost definitely
not they have little to gain and
everything to lose if it was ever found
out but it's not Intel and AMD that we
need to worry about you think the real
problem is the power
ability that these special chips could
be cracked by some hacker group or more
likely some government I mean these
chips obviously are protected with some
hardcore encryption but that doesn't
mean someone couldn't discover some very
clever exploits for it and 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 exploit it
anyway and on top of that because it
bypasses the main processor altogether
there would be no way to stop it and you
wouldn't even know it's doing anything
and I don't even think you'd be able to
defend against attack like this either
if you think about it this thing has
dedicated access to your network
interface so if an attacker were to send
you a malicious payload your computer
even if it were blocked by your software
firewall in your operating system it
might still go directly to the blackbox
chip and infect it because it would
still read everything by the way you
just know that the government is trying
to crack this technology I mean they'd
be stupid not to like the holy grail of
all hacks so the sheer magnitude of this
thing existing that risk is outweighed
by whatever tiny probability that
they'll exploit it in a way that would
be completely disastrous to give you an
idea I want you to imagine this will do
some a little bit fun you have this
uncrackable safe like the lock on this
thing is truly perfect it can't be
picked there's an infinite number of
combinations and also the walls of the
case are made of an imaginary metal
that's impenetrable by any drill or tool
known to man but now what happens is you
put everything you own into that safe
and then you take that safe and put it
outside on your front doorstep
so anybody passing by can walk up to it
and look at this safe and not only that
everyone in the entire world also has
this exact same 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
take before they find the tiniest most
obscure unthinkable weakness that lets
them into it while surely it would take
a roll
time and a lot of work probably but it
would eventually happen maybe they find
out that if they tilt the safe at
exactly point two five radians and
heated up to a hundred degrees
Fahrenheit and apply a magnetic field of
100 Tesla that the door just falls off I
mean what are the odds that anyone would
figure that out but really stuff like
this it's not our matter of if but when
and more importantly once they find an
exploit it doesn't matter how secure the
lock or the walls of a safe are they're
still getting in 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 its design a
complete secret that no one can exploit
it because they don't know anything
about it 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 a safe in your
closet in that case you're betting that
the chance of someone finding it in that
bookshelf 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 what security theory of security
as opposed to open source the arguments
for open source is that because everyone
can look at the code
good guys can then find the exploits and
report them to be fixed before the bad
guys can use them whereas if the code is
proprietary bad guys might be the only
ones who find the exploits and obviously
they're never going to report them on
the other hand the argument for security
through obscurity is that if the code is
open source exploits are more likely to
be found in the first place and there's
no guarantee that the good guys will be
the ones that find them and also bad
guys might be more willing to spend time
searching for these exploits since they
would 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 that means
that it doesn't matter how supposedly
secure these chip
are just their existence poses a massive
risk but before you get too worried
there is a shred of hope in a reddit
thread AMD was asked about making their
PSP processor open-source and they
responded that executive level attention
would be given to looking into the
possibility of releasing that source
code for the 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 that 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
well 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 all together if you want it
which honestly I don't know why there
isn't the option to do that 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 if you
physically go in and break the chip
somehow your computer will refuse to
boot really the only thing you can do is
follow the usual advice for securing
your computer in every other way and
hope for the best
so yeah I hate to stop it there but
that's really it hopefully this video
didn't freak you out too much so be sure
to let me know you think and if you want
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usual thanks for watching guys and
looking forward to hearing from you I'll
see you next time have a good one