back to article Intel NDA blueprints – 20GB of source code, schematics, specs, docs – spill onto web from partners-only vault

Switzerland-based IT consultant Tillie Kottmann on Thursday published a trove of confidential Intel technical material, code, and documents related to various processors and chipsets. "They were given to me by an anonymous source who breached them earlier this year, more details about this will be published soon," Kottmann …

  1. pmelon

    Intel123

    Gotta love that password. I password sprayed our accounts at work (I’m allowed, in the right dept. for that kind of thing) and was gutted when [my org]123 got me 70+ accounts. Feel less bad now.

    1. Drew Scriver

      Re: Intel123

      I had a CISSP challenge me the other day on my insistence that root and admin passwords should be unique to each device, and most certainly cannot be the same for Lab, Dev, QA, and Prod...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Intel123

        Meanwhile, same admin passwords for all servers, workstations, and our departmental password vault that has not changed in 2 years.

        1. Drew Scriver

          Re: Intel123

          Two years is pretty good compared to other companies...

          Worst I've heard so far is 10+ years.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sharing other peoples data

    I wonder if he would get upset if people exposed his data too.

    He feels he is punishing companies by exposing private data that was leaked/stolen/hacked.

    I don't understand why he wants to even bother exposing data, for what,, notoriety as a snitch? I don't' get it.

    Ego manic is all I see.

    If he was exposing crimes (like Snowden) that would be cool, this is just self serving.

    1. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge

      Re: Sharing other peoples data

      It was already leaked and already being shared privately several months ago. He just made it public.

      It's not nice to Intel but it warns people to be on the lookout for active exploits using this information.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sharing other peoples data

      Go research Intel ME, and tell me who the criminals are, and what this type of exposure is usefull for.

  3. IGotOut Silver badge

    If he releases this...

    He can expect criminal proceedings with a healthy case of bankruptcy.

    Swiss law allows discovery in criminal cases to be used in civil and I believe it works the other way as well.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Surprised this hasn't already been leaked...

    These docs were available to Intel's partners under an NDA. Since third parties' security habits can be anyone's guess, I'm surprised that somebody didn't make a copy for themselves or for sharing long before somebody stumbled upon this Akamai repository.

    1. aki009

      They really aren't that "secret".

      The documents are most likely "partner" docs and files that assist them in bringing up hardware with the various Intel drivers and such. Thus it's very unlikely they'll contain any major revelations or releases of magic information.

  5. razorfishsl

    Why would this contain SPACE-X files?

    the torrent gives a list of files without downloading anything.....

    1. Anonymous Coward Silver badge
      Facepalm

      From TFA:

      "Binaries for Camera drivers Intel made for SpaceX"

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
        Joke

        ...and now we know why the barge landing cameras flake out so often.

  6. NeilPost Silver badge

    10 and 7nm

    Hope there are no juicy secrets on how to do 10nm and 7nm foundry manufacturing. The Chinese will slurp them up.

    1. David Neil

      Re: 10 and 7nm

      It's Intel, not TSMC, so unlikely

    2. fajensen

      Re: 10 and 7nm

      Sure. Maybe this leak is an intelligence operation to lure China into using non-working Intel technologies?

      1. some shmuck

        Re: 10 and 7nm

        "non-working Intel technologies"

        Also known as Intel technologies

  7. pavel.petrman
    Pint

    Off topic

    Sorry about this not being to the topic of data leaked from Intel but more about the editorial style of this article.

    I have to say I was a bit put off by how the author adheres to the modern use of gender pronouns quite matter-of-factly. I went to take a look the linked Twitter account and yes, the owner specifically requested those gender pronouns the author used in the article. To my surprise the civility of it without the online warriors throwing the H-word at each other with much ado somehow flipped one tine switch in me and the only thing that crossed my mind was "wow, maybe this could actually work once the nasty war is over".

    It's Friday, so cheers to all you Alan Turings walking among us, I'm reluctantly getting to hope this makes the life a bit easier for you.

    1. Gordon 10
      Thumb Up

      Re: Off topic

      I had the same thought, but didnt check. Thanks for confirming!

    2. Hubert Cumberdale

      Re: Off topic

      Ah, that explains my confusion. At first I thought "Tillie Kottmann" was a consulting company because of the use of the third-person plural, but then I got confused with the subsequent first-person singular references. You know, I'm all for people being called whatever they [sic] want, but I'd really like it if it wasn't through a confusing appropriation of words that already have a different meaning – this unnecessarily introduces ambiguity. If someone could come up with another solution (i.e. a new word or words), that would be a lot easier to read.

      1. pavel.petrman

        Re: Off topic

        @Hubert Cumberdale: I think there are some new words being proposed (e.g. ze/zis) but they seem to cary different sorts of problems with them, too. For example the ze/zis pair tends to cause much confusion whenever non-native speakers come to the scene (with the exception of Germans who seem to be relieved of much stress when talking to Americans).

        1. sev.monster Silver badge
          Headmaster

          Offer topic

          I am of the opinion that gendered pronouns (and gendered words in general) should just be deleted, as impossible as that may be. From my perspective it adds no practical benefit to any language. Languages like Finnish get by just fine without them; the Japanese barely use them in common speech, if at all.

          I don't hold this opinion for any progressive/left-leaning reasons, I just never liked gendered pronouns for as long as I've thought about them as a concept. Rather, in what some may find a surprising twist, I hold an immediate and intractable disgust for anyone that gets mad if you don't use their desired pronouns. Speech censorship and anything leading up to it should be met with immediate scruitny.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Off topic

      The number of folk that didn't notice (including myself) shows that "they" as a singular isn't really an issue.

      I mean, if folk are going to continue to use 'leverage' when they mean 'use', then a personal pronoun here or there is small potatoes. Or it should be.

      1. Hubert Cumberdale

        Re: Off topic

        Both of those things stand out to me and they're both annoying. But not as annoying as when someone incorrectly uses a reflexive pronoun in a timid and futile attempt to somehow sound less personal. "Is it for yourself?" is not a valid replacement for "Is it for you?" Oh, and while I'm ranting about what really grinds my gears, what is it with people saying "you" when they mean "I"? Such as someone describing a scary event in a vox pop on the local news: "And you were just like, really scared, and you were wondering what was going to happen next!" No, no I wasn't. You were. Idiot.

        1. Rol

          Re: Off topic

          In your best Alf Garnet impersonation

          "Dawgs bark, but it's not a language! In it!"

    4. martinusher Silver badge

      Re: Off topic

      We'll all be using Newspeak in the near future.

      1. sev.monster Silver badge
        Big Brother

        Re: Off topic

        Plusgoodful worker fullwise goodthinker. Gived one chocorat upsub antecheckup.

  8. You aint sin me, roit
    Devil

    Note to self...

    Remove all references to backdoors in my security critical code.

    Even the jokey comments.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Devil

      Re: Note to self...

      Especially that dodgy tape library access code snippet:

      Backdoor (Simultaneous_LookUp_Tape_Service_9).

      Forgive me for I must make the reference.

    2. Drew Scriver

      Re: Note to self...

      Reminds me of when I was an Ops Engineer (App Delivery) and we were interviewing people for an open position on our team.

      One of the candidates was a guy who used to be a developer at the company. For years I had been busy plugging his backdoors and information leaks (let's hear it for BIG-IP) almost as quickly as he introduced them.

      During the interview I asked the infamous question, "What makes you the best candidate for this job?"

      Without missing beat he replied, "I know all the backdoors in the applications."

  9. The Mole

    No personal or customer data? Really

    So the spokesperson says that it contains no personal or customer data... yet:

    1. we learn that intel developed cameras for SpaceX (surely that is customer data) and

    2 it contains a git repo which will be full of commit messages containing names and email addresses and information on what those people work on (and that is defintely identifiable personal data)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      IT Angle

      Re: No personal or customer data? Really

      Very good point. These corporate spokespeople are just paid liars really, aren't they?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Must be just me thinking ...

    ... this has nothing to do with "encouraging companies not to be careless with security" and is just douchey attention seeking.

  11. Missing Semicolon Silver badge
    Boffin

    IME

    I wonder if there are any more levers in these documents to crack open the Intel Management Engine even further!

    1. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Happy

      Re: IME

      using the publicly exposed info to uncover everything that M.E. does would be the saving grace of it all.

      ESPECIALLY if there's a newly discovered way to turn it OFF

  12. TeeCee Gold badge
    Joke

    I think AMD must have downloaded this.

    You can hear the laughter from their HQ building ten blocks away.

    1. Glen 1

      If I were AMD, I'd be watching the aftermath *very* closely in case some of the issues are not unique.

      1. Richard 12 Silver badge
        Holmes

        AMD will be very carefully avoiding looking

        While Intel will be going through their customer database, trying to match the set of leaked files with what each customer has access to.

        Someone has probably breached their NDA, and that someone will be in deep doo doo if Intel work out who - even if they can't prove it sufficiently for the civil case, if they're pretty sure they may revoke future access.

  13. FlippingGerman

    Kottmann's Twitter account

    seems to be suspended, from following those links.

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