Intel x86 Considered Harmful

This article examines the security challenges facing us on modern off-the-shelf hardware, focusing on Intel x86-based notebooks. The question the author will try to answer is: can modern Intel x86-based platforms be used as trustworthy computing platforms? The paper looks at security problems arising from the x86's over-complex firmware design (BIOS, SMM, UEFI, etc.), discuss various Intel security technologies (such as VT-d, TXT, Boot Guard and others), consider how useful they might be in protecting against firmware-related security threats and other attacks, and finally move on to take a closer look at the Intel Management Engine (ME) infrastructure.