CHANDLER, Ariz. – Microchip Technology Inc. in Chandler, Ariz., is introducing the CEC1712 trusted-computing cryptography-enabled microcontroller to stop malicious malware such as rootkit and bootkit for systems that boot from external Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) flash memory.
In addition to preventing malicious malware during pre-boot in 5G and data center operating systems, Microchip's CEC1712 and Soteria-G2 combination is a security enabler for connected unmanned vehicle operating systems, automotive Advanced Driver Assisted Systems (ADAS) and other systems that boot out of external SPI flash.
The CEC1712 Arm Cortex-M4-based microcontroller has Soteria-G2 custom firmware, and provides secure boot with hardware root of trust protection in a pre-boot mode for operating systems booting from external SPI flash memory.
In addition, the CEC1712 provides key revocation and code rollback protection during operating life to enable in-field security updates.
Complying with NIST 800-193 guidelines, the CEC1712 protects, detects, and recovers from corruption, and protects against threats before they can load into the system. It only allows the system to boot using software trusted by the manufacturer.
The Soteria-G2 firmware enables designers to speed adoption of a secure boot, by simplifying the code development and reducing risk. Soteria-G2 uses the CEC1712 immutable secure bootloader, implemented in read-only memory (ROM), as the system root of trust.
"A particularly insidious form of malware is a rootkit, because it loads before an operating system boots, and can hide from ordinary anti-malware software and is notoriously difficult to detect," says Ian Harris, vice president of Microchip's computing products group.
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The CEC1712 loads, decrypts and authenticates the firmware to run on the CEC1712 from the external SPI flash. The validated CEC1712 code subsequently authenticates the firmware stored in SPI flash for the first application processor.
Microchip's CEC1712 and Soteria-G2 package offers several options for software and hardware support. Software support includes Microchip's MPLAB X IDE, MPLAB Xpress and MPLABXC32 compilers. Hardware support is included in programmers and debuggers including the MPLAB ICD 4 and PICkit 4 programmer/debugger.
For more information contact Microchip online at www.microchip.com.
