System, apparatus and method for independently recovering a credential
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsXiaoyu Ruan, William A. Stevens, Jr.
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Abstract
In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a non-volatile storage to store a seed value and a signature that is based on an iterative execution of a function for a predetermined number of intervals. The apparatus may further include the security processor coupled to the non-volatile storage, where the security processor is to independently recover a credential for an updated version of the firmware based at least in part on the seed value and a security version number for the updated version of the firmware. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
Claims20
An apparatus comprising:
- a non-volatile storage to store a seed value and a signature, the signature based on an iterative execution of a function for a predetermined number of intervals, the predetermined number of intervals based at least in part on a maximum security version number for a firmware to be executed on a security processor of the apparatus;
- and
- the security processor coupled to the non-volatile storage, wherein the security processor is to independently recover a credential for an updated version of the firmware based at least in part on the seed value and a security version number for the updated version of the firmware.
At least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions, which if performed by a machine cause the machine to perform a method comprising:
- obtaining, in a security processor of a device, a seed value from a non-volatile storage of the device;
- executing, in the security processor, a function a first number of times, wherein an input to the function for a first one of the first number of times comprises the seed value and an output of the function for a last one of the first number of times comprises a credential for a firmware of the device, the firmware of the device corresponding to a nth version of the firmware, wherein the first number of times is based at least in part on a maximum supported number of versions of the firmware;
- and
- sending, to an external verifier, the credential via a secure channel coupled between the device and the external verifier to enable the external verifier to authenticate the firmware.
A system comprising:
- a processor to execute instructions;
- a communication circuit to communicate with a device to couple to the system;
- and
- a storage medium including instructions that when executed enable the system to:
- receive, from the device, a first value, a credential for a current firmware version of the device and a second value corresponding to a version number associated with the current firmware version;
- execute a function for a plurality of iterations corresponding to the second value to obtain a comparison value;
- and
- authenticate the device based at least in part on the comparison value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.