<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"><html><head><meta content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"></head><body ><div style='font-size:10pt;font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;'><div id="scrollbox">Long story short, after cleaning firmware for my desktop PC with me_cleaner and reflashing it back with a Raspberry Pi I took photos (just in case Martin asks to write an article :) for the website)</div><div id="scrollbox">On those photos I found markings on the motherboard implying there is a “ME Disable jumper”!!!</div><div id="scrollbox">After a bit of search I found it and moved from Normal to ME Disable position.</div><div id="scrollbox"><br></div><div id="scrollbox">intelmetool from coreboot utils now reports “Security override via jumper” and other stuff that implies ME is disabled.</div><div id="scrollbox"><br></div><div id="scrollbox">The jumper is not advertised or documented but a quick search on the net revealed that there are such jumpers on other motherboards as well. I couldn’t find definitive answers what the jumper actually disables. Of course, I understand that ME is still operational. me_cleaner removed modules and made ME stop before modules are loaded after initialising the CPU. So in my case it’s difficult to draw conclusions whether the jumper would suffice.</div><div id="scrollbox"><br></div><div id="scrollbox">I thought I should write to urge people check their motherboards for a similar jumper or switch. I also hope that maybe someone can help understand whether ME disable jumper is actually enough to disable the hated ME.</div><div id="scrollbox"><br></div><div id="scrollbox"><br></div><div id="scrollbox">References:</div><div id="scrollbox"><p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12pt;">https://github.com/corna/me_cleaner/wiki/External-flashing</span></p></div><div id="scrollbox"><p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12pt;">https://github.com/coreboot/coreboot/tree/master/util/intelmetool</span></p><br><div id="signatureElementId"><div>--<br></div><div><a href="mailto:vadim@mankevich.co.uk">vadim@mankevich.co.uk</a> PGP key fingerprint<br></div><div>0xC046022A3A91455AF0C9BB2404BF882B1905C772<br></div><div><div>Retrieve from hkps://pgp.mit.edu<br></div><div>or <a href="https://keybase.io/vmankevich">https://keybase.io/vmankevich</a><br></div></div></div></div> </div><br></body></html>