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Ellipsys Middleware

ESS-04 Secure Boot

Secure boot can greatly enhance the security of an embedded system by cryptographically verifying that the code being loaded and executed is authentic and has not been unknowingly or maliciously modified. Once the domain of high security applications, the techniques are now being adopted by a broad range of products such as mobile phones, set-top boxes and networking systems such as base stations.

There are a number of variants for secure boot based on a blend of hardware cores and embedded software with options available for asymmetric and symmetric crypgraphic approaches. The ESS-04 offers a tool kit of software that can be used to implement many variants of secure boot. The toolkit is licensed as C source code to allow it to be ported to the target system.

The following features are available in the ESS-04:

  • Multi-phase loader cryptographically validates a phase before loading it
  • Support for hardware assist to speed boot time if security cores are available
  • Secure access to engineering mode bypasses secure boot for lab debugging purposes
  • C language source code to facilitate adaptation to the end system

There are many implementations options open to designers of Secure Boot. Please contact Elliptic directly to find the one that best meets your overall requirements.