Method and electronic device capable of securely storing and loading firmware

An electronic device capable of securely storing and loading a firmware, the electronic device being externally coupled to a flash memory which belongs to a non-secure world of an operating system environment of the electronic device, and the electronic device comprises:

• a read-only memory, for storing a specific initialization program code, the read-only memory belongs to a secure world of the operating system environment of the electronic device;
• a one-time programmable circuit, for storing a key, the one-time programmable circuit belongs to the secure world of the operating system environment of the electronic device;
• a decryption engine circuit, for decrypting the firmware, the decryption engine circuit belongs to the secure world of the operating system environment of the electronic device;
• and
• a processor, coupled to the read-only memory, the one-time programmable circuit, and the decryption engine circuit, the processor based on a default/preset setting is arranged for starting and executing a reset handler of the read-only memory to perform boot up and start up and for loading an initialization program code when a system of the electronic device is powered up, and using the initialization program code to initiate the decryption engine circuit;
• wherein the decryption engine circuit after being initialized is arranged for obtaining the key from the one-time programmable circuit and loading and configuring the key into the initialized decryption engine circuit, reading a cipher text of the firmware from the flash memory, decrypting the cipher text of the firmware to generate a plain text of the firmware by using the key, and determining whether a secure boot procedure successfully completes according to the cipher text of the firmware and the plain text of the firmware.

An electronic device capable of securely storing and loading a firmware, the electronic device being externally coupled to a flash memory which belongs to a non-secure world of an operating system environment of the electronic device, and the electronic device comprises:

• a read-only memory, for storing a specific initialization program code, the read-only memory belongs to a secure world of the operating system environment of the electronic device;
• a one-time programmable circuit, for storing a key, the one-time programmable circuit belongs to the secure world of the operating system environment of the electronic device;
• and
• a processor, coupled to the read-only memory and the one-time programmable circuit, the processor based on a default/preset setting is arranged for starting and executing a reset handler of the read-only memory to perform boot up and start up and for loading an initialization program code and using the initialization program code to initiate the decryption engine circuit when a system of the electronic device is powered up;
• wherein the processor is arranged for obtaining the key from the one-time programmable circuit, loading and configuring the key into a decryption engine software program, reading a cipher text of the firmware from the flash memory, using the key and the decryption engine software program to decrypt the cipher text of the firmware to generate a plain text of the firmware, and determining whether a secure boot procedure successfully completes according to the cipher text of the firmware and the plain text of the firmware.