Intel patches a remote execution bug that has been active since 2008 on its processors

A recent flaw recently discovered in Intel's AMT (Active Management Technology), ISM (Standard Manageability) and SBT (Small Business Technology) technologies had been active since 2008, according to a recent company announcement.

Apparently, the processors affected by this problem could have "allowed an unprivileged attacker to gain control over the manageability features provided by these products." This could potentially have led to hackers remotely controlling and infecting systems with spyware.

2008 Nehalem Core i7 and Intel Core Kaby Lake processors affected

Through this failure, hackers could have connected to a vulnerable computer, bypassing the security functions of the operating system, including antivirus programs, in order to install malware on the system.

These insecure management functions have been available on various Intel chipsets in the past decade, beginning with the Nehalem Core i7 in 2008 and ending with this year's Intel Core "Kaby Lake". Luckily, this bug, present in millions of Intel processors, seems to have been solved by a microcode update, an update that must be provided by the manufacturer of your equipment.

According to Intel, this critical security vulnerability (labeled CVE-2017-5689) was discovered and reported in March by Maksim Malyutin of Embedi, a company that has already spoken about this issue saying that one of its security researchers was responsible for its finding.

Regardless of whether you use AMT, ISM or SBT technologies, the firmware versions that you need to install (depending on the range of processors) to solve this problem are the following:

• First generation Intel Core: 6.2.61.3535 Second generation Intel Core: 7.1.91.3272 Third generation Intel Core: 8.1.71.3608 Fourth generation Intel Core: 9.1.41.3024 and 9.5.61.3012 Fifth generation Intel Core: 10.0.55.3000Intel 6th Generation Core: 11.0.25.3001 Seventh Generation Core: 11.6.27.3264

On the other hand, take a look at this document to determine if you have a system with AMT, SBA or ISM and this guide to check if your system has firmware affected by this security vulnerability.