METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LOADING A TRUSTABLE OPERATING SYSTEM

• US 20100058076A1
• Filed: 11/10/2009
• Published: 03/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tahoe Research Limited (f/k/a Learndale Limited) (Vector Capital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: David Grawrock, James A. Sutton II, Michael A. Kozuch
• Inventors: Kozuch, Michael A., Sutton, James A. II, Grawrock, David
• Granted Patent: US 8,407,476 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/193
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45583 Memory management, e.g. access or allocation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45587 Isolation or security of virtual machine instances
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/445 Program loading or initiating bootstrapping G06F9/4401; security arrangements for program loading or initiating G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors

Abstract

An article of manufacture is provided for securing a region in a memory of a computer. According to one embodiment, the article of manufacture comprises a machine-accessible medium including data that, when accessed by a machine, causes the machine to: halt all but one of a plurality of processing elements in a computer, where the halted processing elements enter into a special halted state; load content into the region only after the halting of all but the one of the plurality of processing elements and the region is protected from access by the halted processing elements; place the non-halted processing element into a known privileged state; and cause the halted processing elements to exit the halted state after the non-halted processing element has been placed into the known privileged state.

Claims

1. An article of manufacture, comprising:

a machine-accessible medium including data that, when accessed by a machine, causes the machine to;

halt all but one of a plurality of a plurality of processing elements in a processing system, the halted processing elements entering into a special halted state;

identify a region in a memory of a computer;

load content into the region only after the halting of all but the one of the plurality of processing elements;

protect the region from access by the halted processing elements;

use a signed cryptographic hash of the region to verify whether the content can be trusted;

place the non-halted processing element into a known privileged state; and

cause the halted processing elements to exit the halted state after the non-halted processing element has been placed into the known privileged state.