With Intel's Firmware Support Package (FSP) and the recent release of a redistributable firmware binary for the Management Engine, it has become possible to share full firmware images for modern x86 platforms and potentially audit the binaries. Yet, reverse engineering, decompilation and disassembly are still not permitted. However, thanks to previous research, we can have a closer look at the binary data and come to a few conclusions. This talk briefly summarizes the fundamentals of developing custom and open source firmware, followed by a quick guide through the process of analyzing the binaries without actually violating the terms to understand a few bits, and finally poses a statement on the political issues that researchers, repair technicians and software developers are facing nowadays, taking into account how consumers are affected and how they perceive the situtation eventually.
Speakers: Daniel Maslowski