Unintel - Empty string gives remote access to Intel hardware

https://archive.is/Mu0qj
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/05/intel_amt_remote_exploit/
How to remote hijack computers using Intel's insecure chips: Just use an empty login string

>You can remotely commandeer and control computers that use vulnerable Intel chipsets by sending them empty authentication strings.

>You read that right. When you're expected to send a password hash, you send zero bytes. Nothing. Nada. And you'll be rewarded with powerful low-level access to a vulnerable box's hardware from across the network – or across the internet if the management interface faces the public web.

>Remember that the next time Intel, a $180bn international semiconductor giant, talks about how important it treats security.

>To recap: Intel provides a remote management toolkit called AMT for its business and enterprise-friendly processors; this software is part of Chipzilla's vPro suite and runs at the firmware level, below and out of sight of Windows, Linux, or whatever operating system you're using. The code runs on Intel's Management Engine, a tiny secret computer within your computer that has full control of the hardware and talks directly to the network port, allowing a device to be remotely controlled regardless of whatever OS and applications are running, or not, above it.

>Thus, AMT is designed to allow IT admins to remotely log into the guts of computers so they can reboot a knackered machine, repair and tweak the operating system, install a new OS, access a virtual serial console, or gain full-blown remote desktop access via VNC. It is, essentially, god mode.

>Normally, AMT is password protected. This week it emerged this authentication can be bypassed, potentially allowing miscreants to take over systems from afar or once inside a corporate network. This critical security bug was designated CVE-2017-5689. While Intel has patched its code, people have to pester their hardware suppliers for the necessary updates before they can be installed.