HP Sure Start for AMD Technical whitepaper

July 2019
L75214-001
HP Sure Start for AMD
© Copyright 2019 HP Development Company, L.P.
5 Appendix A–NIST SP 800-193: Platform Firmware Resiliency Guidelines 18
Protection of Critical
Data
(Section 4.2.4)
Meets all
Resiliency
Requirements
HP Sure Start for AMD Critical Data, such as Secure Boot authenticated variables,
are only modifiable through defined APIs provided by device firmware. These APIs
employ a mechanism to authenticate that the data is originating from an
authorized source before applying the change.
HP Sure Start for AMD Critical Data, such as per-platform unique factory
configuration settings, are only modifiable through defined APIs provided by
device firmware. These APIs employ a mechanism to authenticate that the
request is originating from an authorized HP service provider before they allow
the change.
HP Sure Start for AMD Critical Data, such as BIOS settings that can be configured
in the field, are only modifiable through defined APIs. These APIs are accessed
only via a system administrator who has configured the BIOS administrator
password.
HP Sure Start for AMD factory default settings, which are not per-platform-
specific, employ the same protection as the code. This includes integrity and
authenticity verification via digital signature. These setting updates are controlled
and protected in the same manner as the firmware.
Detection of
Corrupted Code
(Section 4.3.1)
Meets all
Resiliency
Requirements
A successful attack on the platform firmware will not impact HP Sure Start for
AMD’s RTD. The RTD is maintained in a private flash area inaccessible to the
system software that might compromise the platform firmware.
Firmware code is validated by HP Sure Start for AMD’s RTD using approved digital
signature algorithms and cryptographic hashes.
Detection of
Corrupted Critical
Data (Section 4.3.2)
Meets all
Resiliency
Requirements
A successful attack on the Active Critical Data will not impact HP Sure Start for
AMD’s RTD. The RTD is maintained in a private flash area inaccessible to the
system software that might compromise Active Critical Data.
HP Sure Start for AMD can save and validate critical data through use of digest
hashes prior to using that critical data, and can initiate a recovery of the critical
data if corruption is detected.
Recovery of
Mutable Code
(Section 4.4.1)
Meets all
Resiliency
Requirements
HP Sure Start for AMD’s ESC implements the recovery capability.
A successful attack on the platform firmware will not impact HP Sure Start for
AMD’s RTRec. The RTRec is maintained in a private flash area inaccessible to the
system software that might compromise the platform firmware.
HP Sure Start for AMD’s RTRec has access to a locally stored copy of the
platform’s UEFI image in its private flash area, which is inaccessible to (protected
from) system software.
HP Sure Start for AMD can update the locally stored authentic UEFI image in its
private flash area through an Authenticated Update mechanism.
Recovery of Critical
Data (Section 4.4.2)
Meets all
Resiliency
Requirements
HP Sure Start for AMD’s ESC implements the recovery capability.
A successful attack on Active Critical Data will not impact HP Sure Start for AMD’s
RTRec. The RTRec is maintained in a private flash area inaccessible to the system
software that might compromise Active Critical Data.
HP Sure Start for AMD can recover critical data back to factory defaults including
per-platform-specific data that is backed up in isolated & protected storage.
HP Sure Start for AMD can recover non-per-platform-specific defaults from the
backup BIOS image stored in isolated and protected storage.
HP Sure Start for AMD does not use policies included as part of Critical Data to
restore critical data.