Method and apparatus for securely saving and restoring the state of a computing platform

• Main Authors: Rozas, Carlos V, Johnson, Simon P, Anati, Ittai, McKeen, Francis X, Scarlata, Vincent R, Alexandrovich, Ilya, Leslie-Hurd, Rebekah M
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 10.07.2018
• Subjects: CALCULATING; COMPUTING; COUNTING; ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; ELECTRICITY; PHYSICS; TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHICCOMMUNICATION

An apparatus and method for securely suspending and resuming the state of a processor. For example, one embodiment of a method comprises: generating a data structure including at least the monotonic counter value; generating a message authentication code (MAC) over the data structure using a first key; securely providing the data structure and the MAC to a module executed on the processor; the module verifying the MAC, comparing the monotonic counter value with a counter value stored during a previous suspend operation and, if the counter values match, then loading processor state required for the resume operation to complete. Another embodiment of a method comprises: generating a first key by a processor; securely sharing the first key with an off-processor component; and using the first key to generate a pairing ID usable to identify a pairing between the processor and the off-processor component.