Hardened extended firmware interface framework

Details Hardened extended firmware interface framework Hardened extended firmware interface framework

2006-10-24

2006-10-24

Kim, Matthew (Department: 2186)

Electrical computers and digital processing systems: memory

Storage accessing and control

Control technique

C713S002000, C713S156000, C713S164000, C713S169000, C713S193000, C711S159000, C711S203000, C726S004000, C726S005000, C726S016000, C726S021000, C726S024000, C714S036000, C714S038110

Reexamination Certificate

active

07127579

ABSTRACT:
A method of system for hardening a firmware environment. A trusted core framework of firmware components are segregated from initially non-trustworthy extended firmware components such that the trusted core components are executed in a privileged processor mode, while the extended firmware components are executed in a non-privileged processor mode. An authentication of each extended firmware component is made to determine whether it is secure or non-secure. Through a memory code fault mechanism, memory accesses made by the extended firmware components are trapped, and a determination is made to whether the memory accesses should be allowed based on whether the extended firmware component is secure or non-secure and whether the requested memory page was allocated by the trusted core or a secure extended firmware component. This segregation scheme prevents non-trusted firmware from accessing privileged memory, thereby preventing rogue, errant, or malicious firmware from damaging the trusted core framework.

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