[Nottingham] ME disable jumper

[Vadim Mankevich]

            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)On those photos I found markings on the motherboard implying there is a “ME Disable jumper”!!!After a bit of search I found it and moved from Normal to ME Disable position.intelmetool from coreboot utils now reports “Security override via jumper” and other stuff that implies ME is disabled.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.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.References:https://github.com/corna/me_cleaner/wiki/External-flashinghttps://github.com/coreboot/coreboot/tree/master/util/intelmetool--vadim@mankevich.co.uk PGP key fingerprint0xC046022A3A91455AF0C9BB2404BF882B1905C772Retrieve from hkps://pgp.mit.eduor https://keybase.io/vmankevich
                
            
        
        

    
    

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