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sf.me > Definitions > Management Engine
Categories: Software
A management engine is basically a computer inside your central processing unit (CPU) that has full access to your hardware at all times. The issue with it is that it can be exploited to get full access to a lot of data related to the computer even with it turned off. For Intel CPUs, the Intel Management Engine (IME) has been introduced in 2008. For AMD CPUs, the AMD Platform Security Processor (PSP) has been around since 2013.
It can be considered a backdoor. Intel may not have had a malicious intent of creating a backdoor, but it does function as one. In fact, government organisations can simply use the management engine to get access to your memory and computing history.