Systems and methods for detection of firmware image corruption and initiation of recovery

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018322012-A1
Application number	US-201715587737-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 5, 2017
Priority date	May 5, 2017
Publication date	Nov 8, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, an information handling system may include a host system comprising a host system processor and a device coupled to the host system processor. The information handling system may also include a management controller communicatively coupled to the host system processor and configured to provide management of the information handling system via management traffic communicated between the management controller and a network external to the information handling system and perform runtime verification of a firmware image of the management controller by responsive to each particular read request of the firmware image during runtime of the firmware, verifying integrity of a respective block of the read request and responsive to determining the respective block is corrupted, causing a bootloader of the firmware to, on a subsequent boot of the firmware image, perform recovery of the firmware image.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An information handling system comprising:
a host system comprising:
a host system processor; and
a device coupled to the host system processor; and
an information handling resource communicatively coupled to the host system processor and configured to perform runtime verification of a firmware image of the information handling resource by:
responsive to each particular read request of the firmware image during runtime of the firmware, verifying integrity of a respective block of the read request; and
responsive to determining the respective block is corrupted, causing a bootloader of the firmware to, on a subsequent boot of the firmware image, perform recovery of the firmware image.

2 . The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein verifying integrity of the respective block of the read request comprises comparing the respective block with a build-time hash of the firmware image.

3 . The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein causing the bootloader of the firmware to perform recovery of the firmware image comprises setting a variable readable by the bootloader to indicate that the firmware image is corrupted.

4 . The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the bootloader performs recovery of the firmware image by loading and executing a firmware backup image in lieu of the firmware image during the subsequent boot.

5 . The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the bootloader is further configured to:
during a boot session, verify integrity of the bootloader; and responsive to determining the respective block is corrupted, load and execute a firmware backup image in lieu of the firmware image during the same boot session.

6 . The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the bootloader is further configured to:
during a boot session, verify integrity of a file system of the firmware image; and responsive to determining the file system is corrupted, load and execute a firmware backup image in lieu of the firmware image during the same boot session.

7 . The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the information handling resource comprises a management controller communicatively coupled to the host system processor and configured to provide management of the information handling system via management traffic communicated between the management controller and a network external to the information handling system.

8 . A method for performing runtime verification of a firmware image by:
responsive to each particular read request of the firmware image during runtime of the firmware, verifying integrity of a respective block of the read request; and responsive to determining the respective block is corrupted, causing a bootloader of the firmware to, on a subsequent boot of the firmware image, perform recovery of the firmware image.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein verifying integrity of the respective block of the read request comprises comparing the respective block with a build-time hash of the firmware image.

10 . The method of claim 8 , wherein causing the bootloader of the firmware to perform recovery of the firmware image comprises setting a variable readable by the bootloader to indicate that the firmware image is corrupted.

11 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the bootloader performs recovery of the firmware image by loading and executing a firmware backup image in lieu of the firmware image during the subsequent boot.

12 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the bootloader is further configured to:
during a boot session, verify integrity of the bootloader; and responsive to determining the respective block is corrupted, load and execute a firmware backup image in lieu of the firmware image during the same boot session.

13 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the bootloader is further configured to:
during a boot session, verify integrity of a file system of the firmware image; and responsive to determining the file system is corrupted, load and execute a firmware backup image in lieu of the firmware image during the same boot session.

14 . An article of manufacture comprising:
a non-transitory computer-readable medium; and computer-executable instructions carried on the computer-readable medium, the instructions readable by a processor, the instructions, when read and executed, for causing the processor to perform runtime verification of a firmware image by:
responsive to each particular read request of the firmware image during runtime of the firmware, verifying integrity of a respective block of the read request; and
responsive to determining the respective block is corrupted, causing a bootloader of the firmware to, on a subsequent boot of the firmware image, perform recovery of the firmware image.

15 . The article of claim 14 , wherein verifying integrity of the respective block of the read request comprises comparing the respective block with a build-time hash of the firmware image.

16 . The article of claim 14 , wherein causing the bootloader of the firmware to perform recovery of the firmware image comprises setting a variable readable by the bootloader to indicate that the firmware image is corrupted.

17 . The article of claim 14 , wherein the bootloader performs recovery of the firmware image by loading and executing a firmware backup image in lieu of the firmware image during the subsequent boot.

18 . The article of claim 14 , wherein the bootloader is further configured to:
during a boot session, verify integrity of the bootloader; and responsive to determining the respective block is corrupted, load and execute a firmware backup image in lieu of the firmware image during the same boot session.

19 . The article of claim 14 , wherein the bootloader is further configured to:
during a boot session, verify integrity of a file system of the firmware image; and responsive to determining the file system is corrupted, load and execute a firmware backup image in lieu of the firmware image during the same boot session.

Assignees

• Dell Products Lp

Inventors

• Sharma Piyush
• Cho Eugene David
• Vetteth Kiran George
• Somarouthu Murali K
• Brown Michael Emery
• Brelsford Brian L

Classifications

• G06F11/0793

  Remedial or corrective actions (recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40) · CPC title

• G06F11/1417 Primary

  Boot up procedures · CPC title

• G06F21/572

  Secure firmware programming, e.g. of basic input output system [BIOS] · CPC title

• G06F11/3604

  Analysis of software for verifying properties of programs (testing of software G06F11/3668) · CPC title

• G06F11/3612

  by runtime analysis (performance monitoring G06F11/3466) · CPC title