Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Other

Edmund Bernard Nightingale

Jeremy Eric Elson

George Thomas Letey

Douglas L Stiles

Galen Clyde Hunt

Jeremy P Condit

Engin Ipek

Jonathan Ryan Howell

Reuben R Olinsky

Thales Paulo De Carvalho

Douglas Christopher Burger

John R Douceur

Brian LaMacchia

Ranveer Chandra

Thomas Moscibroda

Landy Wang

Anirudh Badam

James Wiliamson Mickens

Baskar Sridharan

Matthew Jeremiah Eason

Jian Huang

Garrett Leischner

Andrew J Lagattuta

Christopher Frost

Benjamin C Lee

Daryl Roy Zuniga Grosserhode

Doug Burger

Paul Ronald Barham

Orion Tamlin Hodson

Adrian Bonar

Ky Srinivasan

Bin Fan

Sang Eun Kim

Asim Kadav

Stephen Edward Hodges

Richard F Rashid

David A Maltz

Cheng Huang

Jacob Rubin Lorch

Sergey M Yekhanin

Peter L Montgomery

Felix Stefan Domke

Pavan Edara

Stuart Schechter

Alexander Shamis

Parikshit Santhan Gopalan

Robert John Jenkins, Jr

Alex Shamis

Mugdha Jamsandekar

Owen Sebastian Hofmann

Osama Khan

Philip John Joseph Wright

Stephen E Hodges

Brian Lamacchia

James W Mickens

The disclosed technology is generally directed to firewalls. In one example of the technology, a first firewall is used such that communication is blocked from a first subsystem of a device upon boot of the device. The first firewall is enabled to be configured by secure code subsequent to boot such that code that is not secure code is prevented from configuring the first firewall. After configuration of the first firewall, based on the configuration, the first firewall is used to selectively allow the first subsystem access to the first memory based on ranges of addresses of the first memory configured as accessible to the first subsystem.

Subsystem firewalls

While connected to cloud storage, a computing device writes data and metadata to the cloud storage, indicates success of the write to an application of the computing device, and, after indicating success to the application, writes the data and metadata to local storage of the computing device. The data and metadata may be written to different areas of the local storage. The computing device may also determine that it has recovered from a crash or has connected to the cloud storage after operating disconnected and reconcile the local storage with the cloud storage. The reconciliation may be based at least on a comparison of the metadata stored in the area of the local storage with metadata received from the cloud storage. The cloud storage may store each item of data contiguously with its metadata as an expanded block.

Disconnected operation for systems utilizing cloud storage

A technology is directed to embedded device updates. In one example of the technology, a partition of a memory is atomically updated. The partition includes partition tables including a primary partition table and a back-up partition table. The partition tables include entries for the images included in the partition, and information associated with the images included in the partition. Atomically updating the partition of the memory includes writing an updated version to the partition. The written updated version is verified. An updated partition table is written to the back-up partition table. The updated partition table is written to the primary partition table. If it is determined that a power, or other, fault occurred while the primary partition table was being written, the primary partition table is overwritten with the back-up partition table.

Fault tolerant device upgrade

The disclosed technology is generally directed to IoT device update failure recovery. In one example of the technology, after writing an updated release to memory, a determination is made whether the updated release is valid. The updated release includes a plurality of image binaries. If the updated release is determined to be valid, the updated release is made the current release. A determination is made as to whether the current release is stable. Upon determining that the current release is unstable, an auto-rollback is performed. Performing the auto-rollback includes, via at least one processor, automatically: obtaining an uncompressed backup of a previous release; making the uncompressed backup of the previous release the current release; and executing the uncompressed backup.

IoT device update failure recovery

The disclosed technology is generally directed to protection against unauthorized code. In one example of the technology, a read request to a restricted region of memory is detected. The read request is associated with a first processor. In response to detecting the read request to the restricted region of memory, a data value that causes an exception in response to execution by the first processor is provided.

NOP sled defense

In one example of the technology, via a first independent execution environment of a set of independent execution environments in an integrated circuit, a first watchdog timer is caused to reset on a periodic basis. The set of independent execution environments is configured to have a defense-in-depth hierarchy. The set of independent execution environments includes a first independent execution environment and a second independent execution environment. The first independent execution environment is a most trusted execution environment on the integrated circuit. Via the second independent execution environment: a second watchdog timer is periodically caused to reset on a periodic basis. In response to the second watchdog timer timing out, an interrupt is communicated from the second watchdog timer to the first independent execution environment. In response to the first watchdog timer timing out, at least a portion of the integrated circuit is reset.

Watchdog timer hierarchy

The disclosed technology is generally directed to updating of applications, firmware and/or other software on IoT devices. In one example of the technology, a request that is associated with a requested update is communicated from a normal world of a first application processor to a secure world of the first application processor. The secure world validates the requested update. Instructions associated with the validated update are communicated from the secure world to the normal world. Image requests are sent from the normal world to a cloud service for image binaries associated with the validated update. The secure world receives the requested image binaries from the cloud service. The secure world writes the received image binaries to memory, and validates the written image binaries.

Secure IoT device update

Erasure code for data is generated by: calculating the size and bytes of an erasure code block, calculating a number of stripes for the erasure code, and generating each stripe of each block for the erasure code, such that the stripes alternate in a pattern for each block, and saving hashes. A portion of the data is repaired by: for each block of the portion of the data, calculating the stripe of the block, identifying each hash for which the hash of the block of the portion of data does not match the saved hash of the block as a bad block, and for each identified bad block, generating a repair block for the bad block based on the stripe of the block and corresponding block of the data in the erasure coding for the data.

Erasure coding for a single-image memory

The disclosed technology is generally directed to embedded device updates. In one example of the technology, staging is performed for at least two priority groups, completing staging of each higher priority group before staging a lower priority group, including, for each priority group, the following actions. A list of install targets is generated for the priority group based on a list of software for installation in a memory and software present in the memory. A list of purge targets is generated for the priority group based on the list of software for installation in the memory and the software present in the memory. The install targets are downloaded to a backup partition of the memory. Updating of the software in the memory is caused based on the install targets. The purge targets are deleted from the memory. The install targets are deleted from the back-up partition.

Memory-efficient upgrade staging

The disclosed technology is generally directed to data security. In one example of the technology, data is stored in a memory. The memory includes a plurality of memory banks including a first memory bank and a second memory bank. At least a portion of the data is interleaved amongst at least two of the plurality of memory banks. Access is caused to be prevented to at least one of the plurality of memory banks while a debug mode or recovery mode is occurring. Also, access is caused to be prevented to the at least one of the plurality of memory banks starting with initial boot until a verification by a security complex is successful. The verification by the security complex includes the security complex verifying a signature.

Data security for multiple banks of memory

In embodiments of battery-backed RAM for wearable devices, a mobile device, such as a mobile phone, tablet computer, or other portable device is implemented for wireless connection with a wearable device, such as a smartwatch, exercise tracking device, glasses device, or other wearable device that implements computing technology. The wearable device can store data in battery-backed RAM in the wearable device, and the mobile device can back-up the data with battery-backed RAM in the mobile device when the data is received from the wearable device. A wireless connection can be established for wireless data communication between the wearable device and the mobile device. A data manager can detect a low battery condition of the wearable device, which initiates the data being transferred from the wearable device to the mobile device via the wireless connection.

Battery-backed RAM for wearable devices

The disclosed technology is generally directed to integrated circuit technology with defense-in-depth. In one example of the technology, an integrated circuit includes a set of independent execution environments including at least two independent execution environments. At least two of the independent execution environments are general purpose cores with differing capabilities. The independent execution environments in the set of independent execution environments are configured to have a defense-in-depth hierarchy.

Multiple cores with hierarchy of trust

Growing community of inventors

Redmond, WA, United States of America

Edmund Bernard Nightingale