Method and system for updating a software image

• US 20050289533A1
• Filed: 08/26/2005
• Published: 12/29/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: United Microelectronics Corporation
• Original Assignee: Xpoint Technologies Incorporated
• Inventors: Wang, Frank C., Maldaner, Juliano, Goldflam, Michael S., Aiken, Scott D., Kelly, Dennis E.
• Granted Patent: US 7,664,984 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/168
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1417 Boot up procedures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1433 during software upgrading
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/57 Certifying or maintaining trusted computer platforms, e.g. secure boots or power-downs, version controls, system software checks, secure updates or assessing vulnerabilities

Abstract

A method and system for updating or recovering a computer device'"'"'s software image using a single portable operating system image stored on a bootable, secure partition on local storage (hard drive); a method and system utilizing delta image patching technology to allow the single image to work on a large number of diverse computer device platforms; and a method for distributing software patches and updates via a, secure local partition to ensure patches and updates are applied to well known software images that have not been modified to include malicious software and do not include any other undesirable changes that have been made to the primary, running operating system image.

Claims

1. A method of updating software image presently stored in a computer, the steps of the method comprising:

comparing the software image presently stored in the computer with a common image;

determining the differences from the common image;

identifying the patch to be applied based on the computer configuration;

using the determined differences from the common image and the patch to be applied to change the common image; and

updating the image using the determined differences and the patch to be applied.

2. A method of updating an image in a computer including the steps of claim 1 and further including the step of identifying, on a sector by sector basis, the changes from the common image and applying the changes, on a sector by sector basis, to the updated image.

3. A method of updating the image in a computer including the steps of claim 1 wherein the method further includes the step of using a partition to store the common image and storing the updated image in a separate partition.

4. A method of updating the image in a computer comprising the steps of claim 3 wherein the common image is stored in a secure partition.

5. A method of updating the image in a computer including the steps of claim 1 and further including the step of rolling the image back to an earlier image while identifying the changes from that common image, applying at least one patch and also applying the changes between the image and the common image.

6. A method of updating the image in a computer including the steps of claim 5 wherein the method further includes the step of storing the changes and the common image in a secure partition and using the changes, at least one patch and the common image to generate a new image which is stored outside the secure partition.

7. A method of updating the image in a computer including the steps of claim 6 wherein the steps of the method further include the step of including an alternating operating system in the computer and using the alternate operating system to start the updating of the image.

8. A method of updating the image in a computer including the steps of claim 5 wherein the method further includes the step of identifying the sectors of the common image which have been changed and changing only the sectors which have been changed.

9. A method of updating the image in a computer including the steps of claim 5 wherein the method further includes the step of identifying an intermediate state between the initial image and the current image and rolling the image back to the intermediate state before applying a patch.

10. A system for updating a software image on a computer, the system comprising:

a mechanism for determining changes made to a common image;

an update including patches for various configurations of the computer;

a mechanism for determining the configuration of the computer and selecting at least one of the patches to be applied to the software image; and

an updating mechanism which uses the at least one selected patch and the changes made to the common image for updating the software image.

11. The system for updating the software image on a computer as claimed in claim 10 wherein the system further includes a first partition and a second partition and the software for operating the computer is stored in one of the partitions and the updating mechanism is stored in a second partition.

12. The system for updating the software image on a computer as described in claim 11 wherein the second partition is a partition which is secured to prevent inadvertent changes.

13. The system of claim 10 wherein the system includes an alternate operating system and a secure partition with the original image and a list of changes and the system performs the updating of the software image by using the original image, the list of changes from the original image and at least one selected patch.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the alternate operating system is used when the image is being updated.

15. The system of claim 10 wherein the system further includes a listing of sectors which have been changed from the original image and the updating occurs only in the sectors listed.

16. A program for updating a computer image, said program being stored on a medium and comprising:

a first module for comparing the computer image stored on a computer to a common image and generating differences;

a second module which includes a plurality of patches for the computer image;

a third module which includes means for detecting attributes of the computer and its stored programs;

a fourth module for determining at least one patch to be applied, based on the results of the third module;

a fifth module for applying the differences from the common image and the at least one patch to be applied, said fifth module generating an updated computer image for the computer.

17. A program for updating the computer image containing the modules of claim 16 and further including a module for using a secure partition on the computer for storing at least a portion of the differences from the common image and the patches to be applied to the image.

18. A method of restoring an image stored on a personal computer in one partition to an earlier version of the image before updating the image comprising the steps of:

storing a first copy of the image in a secure partition as a master image and a second copy of the image in a primary partition as an operating image;

changing the operating image over time;

in response to changes in the operating image, maintaining a map of the portions of the operating image which have been changed and those portions of the operating image which have not been changed;

restoring the operating image upon command by identifying those portions of the operating image which have been changed from the master image in the secure partition; and

using portions of the master image in the secure partition which correspond to the changed portions of the operating image and restoring the operating image by copying only those portions which have changed from the master image to the operating image.

19. A method including the steps of claim 18 where the map of the portions of the operating image that have been changed is maintained on a sector by sector basis, with those sectors which have been changed identified in the map.

20. A method including the steps of claim 18 where the master image is the initially loaded image.

21. A method including the steps of claim 18 where the master image is an intermediate image.

22. A method including the steps of claim 21 where the master image includes both the intermediate image as well as the initially loaded image.

23. A method including the steps of claim 18 wherein the map of the portions of the operating image that have been changed is maintained within the personal computer.

24. A method including the steps of claim 18 wherein the map of the portions of the operating image that have been changed is maintained remote from the personal computer, with communication of the map to the personal computer in response to a request.

25. A method including the steps of claim 18 wherein the master image is stored in a secure partition on the personal computer.

26. A method including the steps of claim 18 wherein the master image is stored remote from the personal computer, with portions from the master image communicated to the personal computer as needed.

27. A method including the steps of claim 18 wherein the secure partition is located remote from the personal computer, and the updating and restoring is accomplished by communications between the remote storage of the secure partition and the personal computer.

28. A method including the steps of claim 18 where the step of storing an image in a secure partition protects the image from inadvertent change to the image.

29. A method including the steps of claim 18 wherein the method further includes the steps of storing an image of the operating image at a later time after the initial storage, whereby the master image and the image at the later time are each available for updating the operating image at a subsequent time.

30. A method of updating the image including the steps of claim 29 wherein the master image and the image at a later time are stored in a protected partition to protect the images from inadvertent changes.

31. A method of updating the image including the steps of claim 18 wherein the method further includes the step of determining which patches are available at the personal computer and downloading only those patches that do not exist on the personal computer.

32. A method of updating an image including the steps of claim 18 wherein the method further includes the steps of determining which files are missing, determining an incorrect version of the files, and distributing the files which are required.

33. A method of updating an image including the steps of claim 18 wherein the personal computer includes a blade device and a display and the step of storing an image includes the step of storing the image on the blade device.