Re: ISO of a linux animalware / antivirus scanner

On 2024-08-29 00:49, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:

Bobbie Sellers <blissInSanFrancisco@mouse-potato.com> wrote:

        Well it is known that the Intels have a Minix fork
embedded to send data back to the factory. I think that
the data with which they are concerned relates to CPU
functions not with your Personal data.

 Yes, the general functions of these processors in modern CPUs are
described in detail here:
 https://www.devever.net/~hl/backstage-cast
 The privacy issue is that they can have the capacity to access data
in RAM, then since their firmware is closed-source one can't be
sure it doesn't collect personal data and send it back somehow. Or
it's been shown they can be hacked to do that and then snoop out
passwords etc. from RAM, which perhaps is what the OP's concerned
about.
 

        Only thing I can suggest to excape these matters
is to go to an AMD Ryzen motherboard.

 No, AMD Ryzen has it's own equivalent commonly called PSP, and it's
had documented security vulnerabilities too:
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_Secure_Technology#Reported_vulnerabilities
 Your only real escape would be to run a CPU that's so old or
low-spec that you wouldn't have the performance to run a modern
web browser with Javascript support. Of course those web browsers
are where people generally enter information worth snooping on now,
so there's no real escape anymore.
 

You simply need a non enterprise CPU that doesn't have the mini minix. That feature costs money. And has to be enabled in the BIOS. The BIOS may not have support for it, and then the feature is dead, useless.
Its purpose is not to send data back to factory. Its purpose is to be used by the IT department for remote maintenance. And using this feature is expensive.
--
Cheers, Carlos.