BIOS Protection Guidelines - Recommendations of the National Institute of Standards and Technology

BIOS PROTECTION GUIDELINES
1. Introduction
1.1 Authority
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) developed this document in furtherance of its
statutory responsibilities under the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) of 2002,
Public Law 107-347.
NIST is responsible for developing standards and guidelines, including minimum requirements, for
providing adequate information security for all agency operations and assets; but such standards and
guidelines shall not apply to national security systems. This guideline is consistent with the requirements
of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-130, Section 8b(3), “Securing Agency
Information Systems,” as analyzed in A-130, Appendix IV: Analysis of Key Sections. Supplemental
information is provided in A-130, Appendix III.
This guideline has been prepared for use by Federal agencies. It may be used by nongovernmental
organizations on a voluntary basis and is not subject to copyright, though attribution is desired.
Nothing in this document should be taken to contradict standards and guidelines made mandatory and
binding on Federal agencies by the Secretary of Commerce under statutory authority, nor should these
guidelines be interpreted as altering or superseding the existing authorities of the Secretary of Commerce,
Director of the OMB, or any other Federal official.
1.2 Purpose and Scope
This document provides guidelines for preventing the unauthorized modification of Basic Input/Output
System (BIOS) firmware on PC client systems. Unauthorized modification of BIOS firmware by
malicious software constitutes a significant threat because of the BIOS’s unique and privileged position
within the PC architecture. A malicious BIOS modification could be part of a sophisticated, targeted
attack on an organization —either a permanent denial of service (if the BIOS is corrupted) or a persistent
malware presence (if the BIOS is implanted with malware).
As used in this publication, the term BIOS refers to conventional BIOS, Extensible Firmware Interface
(EFI) BIOS, and Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) BIOS. This document applies to system
BIOS firmware (e.g., conventional BIOS or UEFI BIOS) stored in the system flash memory of computer
systems, including portions that may be formatted as Option ROMs. However, it does not apply to Option
ROMs, UEFI drivers, and firmware stored elsewhere in a computer system.
Section 3.1 of this guide provides platform vendors with recommendations and guidelines for a secure
BIOS update process. Additionally, Section 3.2 provides recommendations for managing the BIOS in an
operational environment. Future revisions to this publication will also address the security of critical
system firmware that interact with the BIOS.
While this document focuses on current and future x86 and x64 client platforms, the controls and
procedures are independent of any particular system design. Likewise, although the guide is oriented
toward enterprise-class platforms, the necessary technologies are expected to migrate to consumer-grade
systems over time. Future efforts may look at boot firmware security for enterprise server platforms.
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