Double commander root4/9/2023 ![]() This critical block of code must be heavily audited, and complexity kept to a minimum. Its goal is to prepare the system for the next boot stage and to verify it. The first block of code must execute the secure boot logic. Executing software on a dedicated security core with protected memory as the boot core.One-time programmable (OTP) code flash that has already been programmed and locked.A fixed mask ROM that cannot be changed.2) The code that the reset vector points to must be secure.Ĭommon solutions for what to execute out of reset include the following: While there are several methods for realizing this concept, there are generally two key traits in all of them: 1) The reset vector must be able to be securely controlled. The “root-of-trust", sometimes referred to as a “trust anchor”, is rooted in an immutable part of the device hardware. ![]() This essentially establishes the ground truth for all further steps and anchors the trust chain to something immutable. ![]() To perform secure boot, a “root-of-trust" is required. While at the highest level this concept seems simple enough, there are many steps involved in ensuring secure boot works properly. Sanctions could include disallowing access to cryptographic keys or peripherals, resetting the CPU, or executing a fallback or device recovery program. On the most basic level, if the intended software is not what is expected, a defined set of sanctions are executed. Secure boot reduces an attacker’s ability to gain persistence in a device. In other words, secure boot allows detection (and may disallow execution of) inauthentic or modified software when booting an embedded device. Secure boot is a security mechanism by which software is verified for integrity and authenticity before execution. Secure boot is a foundational first step in modern multi-layered embedded system security. Secure boot answers the questions “How do I know the software is authentic before executing?”, and “How do I know the software is unaltered before execution?”. Imperative to the safety and security, code running in the vehicle must be authentic and unchanged. To make matters even more challenging, security architects need to balance privacy and security with functional security requirements. As more control of driving is given to computers, the impact of cybersecurity incidents is compounded. With this increasing complexity, cybersecurity is an ongoing concern in car design. Future autonomous vehicles will have over 300 million lines of code. To put the complexity in perspective, 100 million is approaching the total number of DNA base pairs of small animals like mice, (humans have about 3,300 billion base pairs). Today’s vehicles can be found with more than 100 car computers executing over 100 million lines of code. Initially introduced for electrically controlling fuel injection, vehicle computers now control every aspect of modern vehicles from heating seats to semi-autonomous driving. The modern automotive vehicle has increased exponentially in complexity since the introduction of microprocessors into vehicle architectures in the late 1960s. Look forward to more secure boot articles from colleague Satoshi Yamanaka-san and me soon. This blog article, part one in a three-part series, aims to give readers a basic understanding of what secure boot is and why it is needed. ![]() I’m happy to announce a series of blog articles introducing the concepts of secure boot and describing how they are achieved using our Renesas automotive MCUs and SoC devices. I’ve been on the security team at Renesas for 4 years, and before that, I worked in automotive security, OTA solutions, and bootloaders for over a decade. ![]() Hi, I’m Phil Lapczynski, Principal Engineer for Automotive Security at Renesas. ![]()
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