Updating software

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016162285-A1
Application number	US-201614994105-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 12, 2016
Priority date	Jan 19, 2011
Publication date	Jun 9, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

This invention relates to a method and apparatus for updating software. In particular this invention relates to a method, system and computer program for updating an operating system in a hypervisor comprising: determining a new version of a component of the operating system; installing the new component version;
measuring an identifying characteristic of the component and making it available to an attestation system; notifying the attestation system that a component has been updated to a new version whereby, when the attestation system finds that the identifying characteristic of the new component does not match a pre-stored attestation value it is aware that a legitimate mis-match could have occurred. The installing of the new version of the component comprises: identifying an updater associated with new version of the component; measuring an identifying characteristic of the identified updater; loading and installing the new version of the component; and making both the identifying measurement of the updater and the new version of the component available to the attestation system.

First claim

1 . A method for updating and attesting code in a execution environment comprising:
installing new code;
measuring an identifying characteristic of the new code and making it available to an attestation system;
notifying the attestation system that code has been updated to a new version whereby; and whereby when the attestation system finds that the identifying characteristic of the new code does not match a pre-stored attestation value it is aware that a legitimate mis-match could have occurred.

2 . A system for updating and attesting code in a execution environment comprising:
installation means for installing new code; measuring means for measuring an identifying characteristic of the new code and making it available to an attestation system; notifying means for notifying the attestation system that code has been updated to a new version whereby; and whereby when the attestation system finds that the identifying characteristic of the new code does not match a pre-stored attestation value it is aware that a legitimate mis-match could have occurred.

3 . A system of testing the integrity of a program comprising:
extracting a code measurement stored by the program installation process; testing means for testing the code measurement with reference measurements stored by the testing system and failing the measurement if it does not match; further testing means for testing the failed code measurement and failing it again if the measurement does not originate from a component known to the testing system; and indicating means for indicating a pass if the code measurement passes a test and a fail if one code measurement does not pass either of the tests.

4 . A computer program product for creating a first computer resource at a client computer, the computer program product comprising:
a computer readable storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructions for execution by the processing circuit for performing a method according to claim 1 .

5 . A computer program stored on a computer readable medium and loadable into the internal memory of a digital computer, comprising software code portions, when said program is run on a computer, for performing the method of claim 1 .

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Gilbert David A
• Haikney David
• Walker James W

Classifications

• G06F8/656

  while running · CPC title

• G06F9/4406

  Loading of operating system · CPC title

• G06F21/575

  Secure boot · CPC title

• G06F21/57

  Certifying or maintaining trusted computer platforms, e.g. secure boots or power-downs, version controls, system software checks, secure updates or assessing vulnerabilities · CPC title

• G06F8/65 Primary

  Updates (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57) · CPC title