Remote provisioning and authenticated writes to secure storage devices
View Patent ↗A system for securing electronic devices includes a storage device including a storage device controller processor, at least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium in firmware of the storage device communicatively coupled to the storage device controller processor, and a monitor application comprising computer-executable instructions on the medium. The instructions are readable by the storage device controller processor. The monitor application is configured to provision one or more read-only areas of the storage device, provision a candidate copy area of the storage device, reduce a maximum capacity available for user data on the storage device by a size of the read-only areas and the candidate copy area, and secure access to the read-only areas of the storage device.
1. At least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium, comprising computer-executable instructions carried on the machine readable medium, the instructions readable by a hardware processor, the instructions, when read and executed, for causing the hardware processor to:
provision one or more read-only areas of a storage device;
store, in a key storage area of the storage device, for each of the one or more read-only areas, a unique key associated with the read-only area;
provision a candidate copy area of the storage device;
reduce a maximum capacity available for user data on the storage device by a cumulative size of the read-only areas, the unique keys associated with the one or more read-only areas, and the candidate copy area;
secure access to the read-only areas of the storage device;
determine that an attempted write to one of the read-only areas has been made;
copy contents of the attempted write to the candidate copy area;
verify a signature of data to be written to the read-only area using the unique key associated with the read-only area; and
in response to verifying the signature of the data to be written to the read-only area using the unique key associated with the read-only area, copy the contents from the candidate copy area to the read-only area.
2. The non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the candidate area is as large as a largest of the read-only areas.
3. The non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 1 , further comprising instructions for causing the hardware processor to:
provision one or more key storage areas in which to store the unique keys associated with the one or more read-only areas.
4. The non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 1 , further comprising instructions for causing the hardware processor to:
provision the read-only areas of the storage device is performed during a boot process of the storage device; and
upon provisioning the read-only areas, block further provisioning based upon a blocking instruction from an entity specifying the provisioning.
5. The non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 1 , further comprising instructions for causing the hardware processor to:
determine an attempted provisioning of a read-only area of the storage device;
create and send a certificate-verification packet including a nonce of the storage device;
receive a verification response to the certificate-verification packet;
determine that the verification response identifies the source of the attempted provisioning; and
verify the verification response based upon the nonce of the storage device.
6. The non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 1 , further comprising instructions for causing the hardware processor to:
after provisioning the read-only areas of the storage device, determine an attempted provisioning of a read-only area of the storage device; and
verify data to be written based upon a validation using a key contained within the provisioning data.
7. The non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 1 , further comprising instructions for causing the hardware processor to:
determine that a second attempted write to one of the read-only areas has been made;
copy contents of the second attempted write to the candidate copy area;
compare a security version of a second payload to be written with a security version of a corresponding read-only area;
verify the second attempted write by determining that the security version of the payload is greater or equal to the security version of the corresponding read-only area; and
based on a verification of the second attempted write, copy the contents from the candidate copy area to the read-only area.
8. A system for securing electronic devices, comprising:
a storage device including at least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium;
a hardware processor coupled to the storage device and configured to:
provision one or more read-only areas of the storage device;
store, in a key storage area of the storage device, for each of the one or more read-only areas, a unique key associated with the read-only area;
provision a candidate copy area of the storage device;
reduce a maximum capacity available for user data on the storage device by a cumulative size of the read-only areas, the unique keys associated with the one or more read-only areas, and the candidate copy area;
secure access to the read-only areas of the storage device;
determine that an attempted write to one of the read-only areas has been made;
copy contents of the attempted write to the candidate copy area;
verify a signature of data to be written to the read-only area using the unique key associated with the read-only area; and
in response to verifying the signature of the data to be written to the read-only area using the unique key associated with the read-only area, copy the contents from the candidate copy area to the read-only area.
9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the candidate area is as large as a largest of the read-only areas.
10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the hardware processor is further configured to:
provision one or more key storage areas in which to store the unique keys associated with the one or more read-only areas.
11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the hardware processor is further configured to:
provision the read-only areas of the storage device is performed during a boot process of the storage device; and
upon provisioning the read-only areas, block further provisioning based upon a blocking instruction from an entity specifying the provisioning.
12. The system of claim 8 , wherein the hardware processor is further configured to:
determine an attempted provisioning of a read-only area of the storage device;
create and send a certificate-verification packet including a nonce of the storage device;
receive a verification response to the certificate-verification packet;
determine that the verification response identifies the source of the attempted provisioning; and
verify the verification response based upon the nonce of the storage device.
13. The system of claim 8 , wherein the hardware processor is further configured to:
after provisioning the read-only areas of the storage device, determine an attempted provisioning of a read-only area of the storage device; and
verify data to be written based upon a validation using a key contained within the provisioning data.
14. The system of claim 8 , wherein the hardware processor is further configured to:
determine that a second attempted write to one of the read-only areas has been made;
copy contents of the second attempted write to the candidate copy area;
compare a security version of a second payload to be written with a security version of a corresponding read-only area;
verify the second attempted write by determining that the security version of the payload is greater or equal to the security version of the corresponding read-only area; and
based on a verification of the second attempted write, copy the contents from the candidate copy area to the read-only area.
15. A method of electronic device security, comprising:
provisioning one or more read-only areas of the storage device using a hardware processor;
storing, in a key storage area of the storage device, for each of the one or more read-only areas, a unique key associated with the read-only area;
provisioning a candidate copy area of the storage device;
reducing a maximum capacity available for user data on the storage device by a cumulative size of the read-only areas, the unique keys associated with the one or more read-only areas, and the candidate copy area;
securing access to the read-only areas of the storage device;
determining that an attempted write to one of the read-only areas has been made;
copying contents of the attempted write to the candidate copy area;
verifying a signature of data to be written to the read-only area using the unique key associated with the read-only area; and
in response to verifying the signature of the data to be written to the read-only area using the unique key associated with the read-only area, copying the contents from the candidate copy area to the read-only area.