[$] OpenBMC, a distribution for baseboard management controllers

The Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) is a set of system-management-and-monitoring APIs typically implemented on server motherboards via an embedded system-on-chip (SoC) that functions completely outside of the host system's BIOS and operating system. While it is intended as a convenience for those who must manage dozens or hundreds of servers in a remote facility, IPMI has been called out for its potential as a serious hole in server security. At the 2016 Embedded Linux Conference in San Diego, Tian Fang presented Facebook's recent work on OpenBMC, a Linux distribution designed to replace proprietary IPMI implementations with an open-source alternative built around standard facilities like SSH.