Security & Privacy
Secure software update
ActivePublished
Key
innovation
Delivering updates with guaranteed authenticity and integrity, protecting the update channel itself from attack.
Category
Security & Privacy
Abstraction level
Pattern
Operation level
DeploymentServing
How it works
The manufacturer signs the update package with a private key; the device verifies the signature with a trusted public key and checks checksums before installing. Channel/package encryption, A/B schemes and rollback are often used so that a failed or malicious update does not brick the device.
Problem solved
The update mechanism is an attractive attack target: a tampered update grants full control over the device; without authenticity and integrity verification, a security patch itself becomes an attack vector.