Modern Intel Firmware Tool ✨

This is a new utility to analyze and edit firmware images for Intel platforms.

Based on knowledge from other projects, such as me_cleaner, coreboot's ifdtool, ME Analyzer and related research, intel_fw is written from scratch in Rust, allowing for integration with other projects, including a flexible API.

The architecture and design is based on experience.

To test this tool, you will need sample firmware images. For convenience, take a look at the scripts used for development.

Commands

me

The me command lets you print, edit and check the (CS)ME firmware. The me clean command is compatible with me_cleaner, with minor differences:

• The --whitelist and --blacklist flags do not cause deletion of partitions when multiple partitions refer to the same range, but at least one of them is to be retained. This is considered a bug fix.
• The --check flag checks all directory partitions as well as the presence of the FTPR. Analysis details are printed unconditionally.

Development

To run the CLI via cargo directly, remember to add arguments after an extra --; i.e., to print the general help, invoke cargo run --relase -- -h, or, for a subcommand, e.g. cargo run --relase -- me clean -h.

This tool uses the clap command line argument parser in derive mode. To familiarize yourself with Rust and common approaches to CLI tools, take a look at the Rust CLI book.

For more understanding, see also any of these additional resources:

• https://rust-cli-recommendations.sunshowers.io/handling-arguments.html
• https://github.com/kyclark/command-line-rust
• https://tucson-josh.com/posts/rust-clap-cli/
• https://www.rustadventure.dev/introducing-clap/clap-v4/parsing-arguments-with-clap

Milestones

• bootstrap a new, general CLI, intel_fw, with an me subcommand
  • mimic the me_cleaner CLI, using similar+same arguments and switches for compatibility
• port the logic to Rust, using me_cleaner-edited images as test fixtures
  • NOTE: committing the test fixtures would be big and a potential license issue; instead, add notes on how to reproduce them, via public vendor images and extraction utilities (e.g. from Lenovo)
  • step 1: port core logic to produce the same output as me_cleaner for Lenovo ThinkPad X230 + X270
  • step 2: full feature parity with me_cleaner
• expand the documentation
  • higher-level view on Intel platform boot flows
  • how the Intel data structures work, in prose
  • adding support for more platforms and variants
• work out a reusable library, i.e., a Rust crate for https://crates.io/
• sync up; https://github.com/corna/me_cleaner has another patch that coreboot is missing, doing rework and adding ME Gen 1 support