Resilient Boot

Abstract

As security continues to permeate embedded systems, it remains largely at odds with other performance metrics such as speed. Time-critical computing systems need to meet strict timing requirements and often cannot afford to add security checks. The impact of these checks is particularly evident before the systems are configured to run at full speed, or during booting. This paper describes a method that allows to speed up the boot process by relying on seemingly unorthodox infrastructure in nonvolatile memories. The additional infrastructure requires positive confirmation—which can be deferred and come after booting— for the system to continue performing application-specific actions. In the event of failure to provide confirmation, the infrastructure initiates a recovery process.