Method of hardware driver integrity check of memory card controller firmware

• US 20070061570A1
• Filed: 11/21/2005
• Published: 03/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SanDisk Technologies LLC (Western Digital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: SanDisk Corporation (Western Digital Corporation)
• Inventors: Elhamias, Reuven, Barzilai, Ron, Cohen, Niv, Holtzman, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 7,536,540 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/168
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/575 Secure boot

Abstract

A memory system comprises an encryption engine implemented in the hardware of a controller. In starting up the memory system, a boot strapping mechanism is implemented wherein a first portion of firmware when executed pulls in another portion of firmware to be executed. The hardware of the encryption engine is used to verify the integrity of at least the first portion of the firmware. Therefore, only the firmware that is intended to run the system will be executed.

Claims

1. A method for starting operation of a memory storage device comprising:

providing firmware in a mass storage unit of the device;

passing said firmware though an encryption engine;

calculating hash values for said firmware with said encryption engine;

comparing the calculated hash values with stored hash values; and

executing said firmware if said computed hash values match said stored hash values.

2. A method for starting operation of a memory storage device, comprising:

providing firmware in a mass storage unit of the device;

executing a first set of instructions in a read only memory that copy the firmware from the mass storage unit to a random access memory;

verifying the integrity of the firmware using an encryption engine; and

after the integrity is verified, executing the firmware from a random access memory with a microprocessor.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said firmware contains instructions to fetch additional firmware from the mass storage unit.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the method further comprises executing the additional firmware.