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Could someone hack a tails device based on the firmware in it?

I am aware that there is firmware on devices that tails can be installed on. In new laptops this firmware may connect directly to a sever. This connection will not go through tor.

Signs that you laptop may have firmware I am talking about are the presents of PXE booting options, firmware update able laptops, Pre OS networking etc.

Also there are laptops with Intel and AMD management engines. I think this management engine means that it can connect to the Internet directly.

According to the libreboot website.

https://libreboot.org/faq/#firmware-cpu

It states.

“CPU microcode #firmware-cpu Implements an instruction set. See #microcode for a brief description. Here we mean microcode built in to the CPU. We are not talking about the updates supplied by the boot firmware (libreboot does not include microcode updates, and only supports systems that will work without it) Microcode can be very powerful. No proof that it's malicious, but it could theoretically There isn't really a way to solve this, unless you use a CPU which does not have microcode. (ARM CPUs don't, but most ARM systems require blobs for the graphics hardware at present, and typically have other things like soldered wifi which might require blobs) CPUs often on modern systems have a processor inside it for things like power management. ARM for example, has lots of these.”

I am aware that this firmware can be used to monitor your computer and in some cases may be able to even monitor your activity.

So my question is can some one hack a tails device based on this leaking firmware?

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  • This is a communication links.org/?p=330 “The only stuff I can find on Google so far seems to imply that you’re netbooting and upgrading the firmware through the netbooted OS” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preboot_Execution_Environment “PXE acceptance since v2.1 has been ubiquitous; today it is virtually impossible to find a network card without PXE firmware on it” Feb 9, 2018 at 5:54

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Yes.

Tails cannot protect you from compromised hardware including BIOS or firmware attacks, as it clearly stated in the warning page:

Tails does not protect against BIOS or firmware attacks

It is also impossible for Tails to protect against attacks made through the BIOS or other firmware embedded in the computer. These are not managed or provided by the operating system directly, and no operating system can protect against such attacks.

See for example, this attack on BIOS by LegbaCore.

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