Anti-malware support for firmware

摘要

Technologies are described herein for anti-malware support within firmware. Through the utilization of the technologies and concepts presented herein, malicious software protection may be extended down to the firmware level. Detecting malicious firmware or software, removing it from firmware, and actively preventing it from exploiting known security vulnerabilities may be supported. Application level anti-malware software may interface with, and be supported by, one or more firmware level anti-malware modules. Firmware level anti-malware modules can actively prevent malicious software from affecting the system firmware. For example, the anti-malware modules may monitor or block access to the firmware. Anti-malware modules may be available at both boot-time and run-time. Thus, a wider range of malicious software attacks or infiltrations may be mitigated.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method for supporting anti-malware operations within a firmware of a computer, the computer-implemented method comprising:
providing an interface between a firmware level anti-malware module and an anti-malware application executing at an operating system level, the anti-malware module stored within the firmware; receiving a request at the anti-malware module to perform monitoring of firmware accesses during a normal operational mode following a boot-time; and performing the monitoring of the firmware accesses by the anti-malware module in response to receiving the request.