Lojack revisited

[Re@lity]

It's a shame that the original Lojack thread degenerated from an interesting possibility of technical discussion into something of a slanging match

I wanted to post some more possibly relevant information on such technology.

Please note that the purpose of this thread is to discuss the *technology*
It would be a shame if we, once again, demote things to the level of kindergarten

I think that maybe they're using Intel's new vPro technology.
This, in itself, is an interesting breakthrough.

Intel® vPro™ Technology for Notebook and Desktop PCs

I *does* allow very limited access to a machine whilst it is *turned off*

From what I gather, and in simple terms, a tiny "secondary CPU" is used, which always remains powered, even when the machine is powered off.
I assume this means that a power source (trickle) must still be available, i.e. the machine is powered off but still plugged in, or in the case of a laptop have a battery still fitted.

Information such as a hardware audit may be carried out during this state.

So far, a small amount of data (around 8k) may also be saved to persistent storage too. This data is also available whilst the machine is powered down.
Obviously, this is large enough to hold a reasonable amount of information, in general terms.
The Linux source code is available for this.

This technology *is* available over http too.

It also provides pre-boot access to the BIOS itself.

As for the networking side, some comments were made about "OS independence" - i.e. "just install Linux instead", etc:

vPro also allows packet manipulation *before* it reaches the OS.
Hence also that remote control can be forced, without relying on the usual suspects; ssh, etc.

Sorry to dig up a closed thread again - especially one that's gone off the rails, but I think this technology is very much worthy of discussion

[imported_wyze]

Wow, very interesting indeed. I had stumbled upon vPro once upon a time, but never dug into it (you can bet that I will now).

Thanks for resurrecting the topic! I'd enjoy the $.02 from others on this.

[xorred]

to me that sounds like the HP iLO card functionality... if it's even close, and it does NOT require password auth, (I doubt they wll have diff password for every pc and keep a database of it, although it is possible)... if it does not require a password, this will be a HighJack, not a LoJack...

[Re@lity]

Yes, I thought of Lights Out too.......

Similar, in a way, but this is much more "generic" if you like, in that it's not designed for a specific hardware platform like the Proliant range, but rather just a standard PC/laptop architecture.
It's also much more powerful than Lights Out.

I'm sure there'd be some kind of authentication involved

[imported_wyze]

See http://forums.remote-exploit.org/145368-post72.html