Dear Members,

I have a MacBook Pro Retina with an older ME that has an ARC processor (as opposed to the 80468 CPU) in it.
To better understand the inner workings of my ME I wanted to get hold of such an apparently rare and precious old BYP FW.
While I have been able to find one for the ME 11, this isn't too useful for me, and I have yet to find one for that older ME 7 to 10, which leverages an ARC processor.
Multiple approaches and several different search terms haven't found me anything interesting, despite trying various numbers and combinations from the MEA.dat file.
A hash-based search in both Google and virustotal was unsuccessful either.

Thus my question is: How would you go about finding such rare FW? There have also been rumors of deliberately not posting such in the public because Intel demanded so.
I can understand that, but giving ideas or hints where to look externally should be ok I recon?
It might also help if I only just knew an original source file name (not the MEAnalyzer designation!), because right now I don't even know what to really look for...

Any slightest pointers highly appreciated. And if it is too hot here, then I'm happy to be hit by you with a PM.

As an unrelated note: What can I do if I have a PRE image? I suppose PRE isn't quite the *real deal* when compared to BYP..?

Kind regards
microwave89-hv

There is some tools around based on FW for Apple, that can make a dump of SPI as backup before a flash. Search InsanelyMac or Macrumors, can remember correct names.
This is the starting point to identify clues/specs on the FW presented in the current working Apple EFI FW in use now in that machine.
Attach info as much as u can, so someone can help u.

EDIT: I see that plutomaniac as answered u already, is the best in the subject.

Thanks for your reply.
MEAnalyzer tells me that I am running the following FW:

╔══════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ME Analyzer v1.186.2 Unknown ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════╝

╔══════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ read5Mhz15.bin (1/1) ║
╟─────────────────────────────┬────────────╢
║ Family │ ME ║
╟─────────────────────────────┼────────────╢
║ Version │ 9.0.5.1367 ║
╟─────────────────────────────┼────────────╢
║ Release │ Production ║
╟─────────────────────────────┼────────────╢
║ Type │ Extracted ║
╟─────────────────────────────┼────────────╢
║ SKU │ 1.5MB ║
╟─────────────────────────────┼────────────╢
║ TCB Security Version Number │ 1 ║
╟─────────────────────────────┼────────────╢
║ Version Control Number │ 2 ║
╟─────────────────────────────┼────────────╢
║ Production Ready │ Yes ║
╟─────────────────────────────┼────────────╢
║ Date │ 2013-05-15 ║
╟─────────────────────────────┼────────────╢
║ Size │ 0x17D000 ║
╟─────────────────────────────┼────────────╢
║ Flash Image Tool │ 9.0.5.1367 ║
╟─────────────────────────────┼────────────╢
║ Chipset Support │ LPT ║
╟─────────────────────────────┼────────────╢
║ Latest │ Yes ║
╚═════════════════════════════╧════════════╝

Error: Unknown ME 9.0 RSA Public Key!

The ME region was extracted from an offline SPI dump.
Besides wondering where to get BYP FW for that generation 2 ME, I was also wondering what will happen if I were to flash a 9.0 PRE FW? Would this relax signing requirements?

Do you need any more info regarding my MacBook Pro's HW/SW?

Kind regards,
microwave89-hv

Btw, is it normal that a registered user has to solve a captcha when re-logging into the win-raid site?

Thanks @ plutomaniac for that information.
Accidentally, it just has so that I independently managed to find such a FW.
Interestingly enough this also has a n unknown RSA key.
╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ME10.0_1.5M_RomBypass.bin (1/1) ║
╟──────────────────────────────────┬─────────────────╢
║ Family │ ME ║
╟──────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────╢
║ Version │ 10.0.55.3000 ║
╟──────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────╢
║ Release │ ROM-Bypass ║
╟──────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────╢
║ Type │ Stock ║
╟──────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────╢
║ SKU │ 1.5MB ║
╟──────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────╢
║ TCB Security Version Number │ 1 ║
╟──────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────╢
║ Version Control Number │ 6 ║
╟──────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────╢
║ Production Ready │ Yes ║
╟──────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────╢
║ Date │ 2017-04-09 ║
╟──────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────╢
║ Size │ 0x19D000 ║
╟──────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────╢
║ Chipset Support │ WPT-LP ║
╚══════════════════════════════════╧═════════════════╝

Error: Unknown ME 10.0 RSA Public Key!

What am I doing wrong?

I will find a temporary storage and upload the image with the 9.0 issue.

Kind regards,
microwave89-hv

(Maybe we should move into another thread then? (Seeing that the BYP problem was solved anyways))

EDIT: How can that FW be Production Ready if it is that "Alpha" version?

EDIT2: g o f i l e . i o / d / w Q b 8 5 v
(I heard once that new members can't post links)

╔═══════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ME Analyzer v1.186.2 r229 ║
╚═══════════════════════════════════════════╝

╔══════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ read5Mhz15i.bin (1/1) ║
╟─────────────────────────────┬────────────╢
...
╟─────────────────────────────┼────────────╢
║ Latest │ No ║
╚═════════════════════════════╧════════════╝

Press enter to exit

LOL. Thanks a lot @plutomaniac!

The DB was damaged!
And it was me, because to simplify skimming for BYP images I find/replaced "BYP" by "BYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYP" to have the desired versions optically stand out.
Must have saved at some point accidentally :|

So that leaves only my second question: Might I gain something in terms of capabilities or relaxed signing requirements and so on, if I were to deliberately
replace a PRD image by a PRE one, and then reflash the SPI ROM?

Kind regards,
microwave89-hv