Intel ME Cleaner

Using me_cleaner

Needless to say, there is a certain amount of risk of bricking your system when it comes to this procedure. Proceed with caution!

Make sure that any kind of battery is unplugged from the computer

• This includes your laptop battery as well as your RTC (coin cell) battery!

Clip an SPI reader that is compatible with flashrom onto your motherboard's bios chip

• Supported programmers
• Make sure to consult the datasheet for the specific EEPROM that your motherboard uses when wiring the pins to the programmer. For example, on a 
  

On a separate computer, interface with the SPI programmer and try reading off of the EEPROM

flashrom -p linux_spi:dev=/dev/spidev0.0,spispeed=1000 -r original_dump.bin

• May need to mess around with SPI speed
• Dump the firmware multiple times and store them safely.

Use me_cleaner to modify the original firmware dump

Consult the project's wiki. Essentially, you can do one of two things:

# Set HAP bit as well as attempt to remove portions of the ME firmware
python me_cleaner.py -S -O modified_image.bin original_dump.bin

# Only sets HAP bit. Used if the above command fails
python me_cleaner.py -s -O modified_image.bin original_dump.bin

Write to the EEPROM

flashrom -p linux_spi:dev=/dev/spidev0.0,spispeed=1000 -w modified_image.bin

You may also want to, after writing to the EEPROM, read the firmware again and use me_cleaner to verify that the firmware has been cleaned properly.

python me_cleaner.py -c firmware_to_check.bin

# You can also use intelmetool
sudo intelmetool -m

# Output:
# Can't find ME PCI device

You can also check in your bios. On my T480 and L390, the ME Firmware Version is blanked out. 

Cheers!