Booting and configuring a subsystem securely from non-local storage

• US 8,589,667 B2
• Filed: 11/11/2010
• Issued: 11/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Mujtaba, Aon, Zhang, Haining, Sivasithambaresan, Arjuna, Ho, Alex, Mathias, Arun, Schell, Stephen, Andrews, Jonathan J., Gosnell, Jason, De Atley, Dallas B., Hauck, Jerry
• Primary Examiner(s): Yanchus, III, Paul
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hicks, Austin
• Application Number:
  US12/944,481
• Publication Number:
  US 20110258426A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,104 Days
• Field of Search: 713/1
• US Class Current: 713/2
• 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 21/572 Secure firmware programming, e.g. of basic input output system [BIOS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/74 operating in dual or compartmented mode, i.e. at least one secure mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/78 to assure secure storage of data address-based protection against unauthorised use of memory G06F12/14; record carriers for use with machines and with at least a part designed to carry digital markings G06K19/00

Abstract

According to one aspect, a multifunctional computing device having a wireless communications processor (e.g., cellular processor) and an application processor (e.g., general-purpose processor such as a CPU) share a storage device that is associated with or attached to the application processor. An example of such a multifunctional computing device may be a Smartphone device having a cellular phone and handheld computer functionalities. There is no specific storage device directly associated with or attached to the wireless communications processor (hereinafter simply referred to as a wireless processor). Instead, the wireless processor communicates with the application processor via a high speed communications link, such as a USB link, to access code and data stored in the storage device (e.g., flash memory device) associated with the application processor.

Claims

1. A portable device, comprising:

an application processor;

a first random access memory (RAM) coupled to the application processor, the first RAM having executed therein a first operating system (OS) that provides an operating environment for the application processor;

a non-volatile storage device coupled to the application processor and the first RAM, the non-volatile storage device storing data accessed by the application processor via the first OS;

a wireless communications processor coupled to the application processor over an internal bus;

a second RAM coupled to the wireless communications processor, the second RAM having executed therein a second OS that provides an operating environment for the wireless communications processor,

wherein the wireless communications processor is configured to access the non-volatile storage device via a communications link over the internal bus to fetch a boot code image from the non-volatile storage device to boot the wireless communications processor, to establish the second OS, and to access data associated with the wireless communications processor in the non-volatile storage device during normal operations,

wherein the boot code image includes a first boot code segment and a second boot code segment that are signed by a chain of digital certificates, wherein the ROM boot loader is configured to authenticate the first boot code segment using a first of the digital certificates in the chain and to execute the first boot code segment, and wherein the first boot code segment, when executed by the ROM boot loader, is configured to fetch the second boot code segment from the non-volatile storage device, to authenticate the second boot code segment using a second of the digital certificates in the chain, and to load the second boot code segment, and

wherein the second RAM includes a cryptographic unit executed therein, and wherein in response to a command for accessing the non-volatile storage device, the cryptographic unit is configured to encrypt and decrypt data to and from the non-volatile storage device over the communications link, using a storage key that is derived from a unique identifier (UID) that uniquely identifies the wireless communications processor.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the wireless communications processor further comprises a secure read-only memory (ROM) for storing a ROM boot loader, wherein in response to a boot command received by the wireless communications processor, the ROM boot loader is executed from the secure ROM to initialize hardware of the wireless communications processor and to establish the communications link with the application processor over the internal bus.

3. The device of claim 2, wherein the ROM boot loader is configured to authenticate the boot code image, and upon having successfully authenticated the boot code image, to execute the boot code image in the second RAM to establish the second OS for the wireless communications processor.

4. The device of claim 3, wherein the ROM boot loader is configured to decrypt the boot code image using a storage key derived from a unique identifier (UID) that uniquely identifies the wireless communications processor.

5. The device of claim 3, wherein the ROM boot loader authenticates the boot code image using a digital certificate that is stored within the secure ROM of the wireless communications processor.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the wireless communications processor further comprises an internal RAM initialized by the ROM boot loader, wherein the first code segment is fetched, authenticated, and launched within the internal RAM by the ROM boot loader, and wherein the second code segment is fetched, authenticated, and launched within the second RAM by the first boot code segment.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the first RAM further includes a file system and a first file system driver executed therein, wherein the second RAM further includes a second file system driver executed therein, wherein the second file system driver is configured to communicate with the first file system driver over the communications link to invoke a file system service from the file system for the purpose of accessing the non-volatile storage device by the wireless communications processor.

8. A portable device, comprising:

an application processor;

a first random access memory (RAM) coupled to the application processor, the first RAM having executed therein a first operating system (OS) that provides an operating environment for the application processor;

a non-volatile storage device coupled to the application processor and the first RAM, the non-volatile storage device storing data accessed by the application processor via the first OS;

a wireless communications processor coupled to the application processor over an internal bus;

a second RAM coupled to the wireless communications processor, the second RAM having executed therein a second OS that provides an operating environment for the wireless communications processor,

wherein the wireless communications processor is configured to access the non-volatile storage device via a communications link over the internal bus to fetch a boot code image from the non-volatile storage device to boot the wireless communications processor, to establish the second OS, and to access data associated with the wireless communications processor in the non-volatile storage device during normal operations,

wherein the boot code image includes a first boot code segment and a second boot code segment that are signed by a chain of digital certificates, wherein the ROM boot loader is configured to authenticate the first boot code segment using a first of the digital certificates in the chain and to execute the first boot code segment, and wherein the first boot code segment, when executed by the ROM boot loader, is configured to fetch the second boot code segment from the non-volatile storage device, to authenticate the second boot code segment using a second of the digital certificates in the chain, and to load the second boot code segment, and

wherein in response to a command to update data, a session key is generated and encrypted by a storage key that is derived from a unique identifier (UID) uniquely identifying the wireless communications processor to generate a recovery blob, wherein the recovery blob and the session key encrypted by a public key are transmitted to an authorization server, and wherein in response to data and a recovery blob received from a provisioning server, the session key is recovered from the recovery blob by decrypting the recovery blob using the storage key, wherein the recovered session key is used to decrypt the data received from the provisioning server.

9. The device of claim 8, wherein the data includes radio frequency (RF) calibration data.

10. A machine-implemented method for operating a portable device, the method comprising:

in response to a boot command, executing a read-only memory (ROM) boot loader from a secure ROM of a wireless communications processor, wherein the ROM boot loader initializes hardware associated with wireless communications processor of the portable device;

establishing, by the ROM boot loader, a communication link with an application processor of the portable device over an internal bus that couples the wireless communications processor with the application processor;

fetching, by the ROM boot loader, a boot code image from a non-volatile storage device over the communication link, wherein the non-volatile storage device is associated with and accessed by the application processor via a first operating system (OS) executed within a first random-access memory (RAM) associated with the application processor;

authenticating, by the ROM boot loader, the boot code image;

upon having successfully authenticated the boot code image, the ROM boot loader launching the boot code image into a second RAM associated with the wireless communications processor to establish a second OS for the wireless communications processor,

wherein the boot code image includes a first boot code segment and a second boot code segment that are signed by a chain of digital certificates, wherein the ROM boot loader is configured to authenticate the first boot code segment using a first of the digital certificates in the chain from the secure ROM and to execute the first boot code segment, and wherein the first boot code segment, when executed by the ROM boot loader, is configured to fetch the second boot code segment from the non-volatile storage device, to authenticate the second boot code segment using a second of the digital certificates in the chain, and to load the second boot code segment,

wherein the boot code image is authenticated by the ROM boot loader using a digital certificate stored in the secure ROM, wherein the digital certificate is derived from a unique identifier (UID) that uniquely identifies the wireless communications processor; and

in response to a command for accessing the non-volatile storage device, encrypting and decrypting data to and from the non-volatile storage device over the communications link, using the storage key.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein authenticating the boot code image comprises decrypting at least a portion of the boot code image using a storage key derived from the UID of the wireless communications processor.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the first RAM further includes a file system and a first file system driver executed therein, wherein the second RAM further includes a second file system driver executed therein, wherein the second file system driver is configured to communicate with the first file system driver over the communications link to invoke a file system service from the file system for the purpose of accessing the non-volatile storage device by the wireless communications processor.

13. A machine-implemented method for operating a portable device, the method comprising:

in response to a boot command, executing a read-only memory (ROM) boot loader from a secure ROM of a wireless communications processor, wherein the ROM boot loader initializes hardware associated with wireless communications processor of the portable device;

establishing, by the ROM boot loader, a communication link with an application processor of the portable device over an internal bus that couples the wireless communications processor with the application processor;

fetching, by the ROM boot loader, a boot code image from a non-volatile storage device over the communication link, wherein the non-volatile storage device is associated with and accessed by the application processor via a first operating system (OS) executed within a first random-access memory (RAM) associated with the application processor;

authenticating, by the ROM boot loader, the boot code image;

upon having successfully authenticated the boot code image, the ROM boot loader launching the boot code image into a second RAM associated with the wireless communications processor to establish a second OS for the wireless communications processor, wherein the boot code image includes a first boot code segment and a second boot code segment that are signed by a chain of digital certificates, wherein the ROM boot loader is configured to authenticate the first boot code segment using a first of the digital certificates in the chain from the secure ROM and to execute the first boot code segment, and wherein the first boot code segment, when executed by the ROM boot loader, is configured to fetch the second boot code segment from the non-volatile storage device, to authenticate the second boot code segment using a second of the digital certificates in the chain, and to load the second boot code segment;

in response to a command to update data, generating a session key;

encrypting the session key using a storage key that is derived from a unique identifier (UID) uniquely identifying the wireless communications processor;

generating a recovery blob having embedded therein the session key encrypted by the storage key;

encrypting the session key using a public key of a public/private key pair;

transmitting the recovery blob and the session key encrypted by the public key to an authorization server, wherein the authorization server is configured to recover the session key by decrypting the session key using a private key of the public/private key pair;

in response to data encrypted by the session key and a recovery blob downloaded from a provisioning server, recovering the session key from the recovery blob by decrypting the recovery blob using the storage key;

recovering the data by decrypting encrypted data using the session key; and

storing the data in the non-volatile storage device.

14. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having instructions stored therein, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform a method for operating a portable device, the method comprising:

in response to a boot command, executing a read-only memory (ROM) boot loader from a secure ROM of a wireless communications processor, wherein the ROM boot loader initializes hardware associated with wireless communications processor of the portable device;

establishing, by the ROM boot loader, a communication link with an application processor of the portable device over an internal bus that couples the wireless communications processor with the application processor;

fetching, by the ROM boot loader, a boot code image from a non-volatile storage device over the communication link, wherein the non-volatile storage device is associated with and accessed by the application processor via a first operating system (OS) executed within a first random-access memory (RAM) associated with the application processor;

authenticating, by the ROM boot loader, the boot code image; and

upon having successfully authenticated the boot code image, the ROM boot loader launching the boot code image into a second RAM associated with the wireless communications processor to establish a second OS for the wireless communications processor, wherein the boot code image includes a first boot code segment and a second boot code segment that are signed by a chain of digital certificates, wherein the ROM boot loader is configured to authenticate the first boot code segment using a first of the digital certificates in the chain from the secure ROM and to execute the first boot code segment, and wherein the first boot code segment, when executed by the ROM boot loader, is configured to fetch the second boot code segment from the non-volatile storage device, to authenticate the second boot code segment using a second of the digital certificates in the chain, and to load the second boot code segment,

wherein the boot code image is authenticated by the ROM boot loader using a digital certificate stored in the secure ROM, wherein the digital certificate is derived from a unique identifier (UID) that uniquely identifies the wireless communications processor; and

in response to a command for accessing the non-volatile storage device, encrypting and decrypting data to and from the non-volatile storage device over the communications link, using the storage key.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein authenticating the boot code image comprises decrypting at least a portion of the boot code image using a storage key derived from the UID of the wireless communications processor.

16. A machine-implemented method for operating a portable device, the method comprising:

in response to a command to update a software component for the portable device, generating a session key;

encrypting the session key using a storage key that is derived from a unique identifier (UID) uniquely identifying the portable device;

generating a recovery blob having embedded therein the session key encrypted by the storage key;

encrypting the session key using a public key of a public/private key pair;

transmitting the recovery blob and the session key encrypted by the public key to an authorization server, wherein the authorization server is configured to recover the session key by decrypting the session key using a private key of the public/private key pair;

in response to a software component and a recovery blob downloaded from a provisioning server, recovering the session key from the recovery blob by decrypting the recovery blob using the storage key, wherein the software component is encrypted by the session key which is received by the provisioning server from the authorization server; and

recovering the software component by decrypting encrypted software component using a session key that is recovered from the recovery blob, wherein the software component is to be installed in the portable device.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the software component includes at least one of a boot code image for booting the portable device and radio frequency (RF) calibration data for calibrating a wireless communications processor of the portable device.