Prevention of execution of unauthorized firmware from uefi firmware volumes
AssigneeDell Products L.P.
InventorsBalasingh Samuel, Walter Phillips, Richard Tonry
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Unauthorized code may be stored as data in a data volume of a firmware volume. To prevent or block execution of the unauthorized code, the firmware file system (FFS) file that includes the unauthorized code may be tagged, marked or deleted according to a system bios policy. These corrupted FFS files are thus blocked from execution during initialization or a boot process of a basic input/output system (BIOS) firmware as they are not published or enumerated to an execution list of the BIOS firmware.
Claims20
A method for firmware volume mapping by a basic input/output system (BIOS) of an information handling system, comprising:
- receiving information associated with a firmware volume;
- determining based, at least in part, on the information whether the firmware volume is a data volume;
- identifying one or more files associated with the data volume;
- determining if the identified one or more files comprise an associated entry point;
- tagging as blocked for execution each of the identified one or more files determined to comprise an associated entry point;
- and
- blocking execution of each of the tagged files.
An information handling system, comprising:
- a memory;
- a processor coupled to the memory, wherein the processor has access to a basic input/output system (BIOS), wherein the BIOS includes one or more instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor to:
- receive information related to a firmware volume;
- determine based, at least in part, on the information whether the firmware volume is a data volume;
- identify one or more files associated with the data volume;
- determine if the identified one or more files comprise an associated entry point;
- tag as blocked for execution each of the identified one or more files determined to comprise an associated entry point;
- and
- block execution of each of the tagged files.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing one or more instructions, the one or more instructions representing a basic input/output system (BIOS), that, when executed by a processor of an information handling system, cause the processor to:
- receive information related to a firmware volume;
- determine based, at least in part, on the information whether the firmware volume is a data volume;
- identify one or more files associated with the firmware volume;
- determine if the identified one or more files comprise an associated entry point;
- tag as blocked for execution each of the identified one or more files determined to comprise an associated entry point;
- and
- block execution of each of the tagged files.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.