Learning About Firmware Security – Xeno Kovah – BTS #10
Firmware security is a deeply technical topic, that's hard to get started in. In this talk, Xeno will discuss some past work in firmware security, and how he has organized resources such as a low level timeline (with over 300 talks), and free MOOC classes, to help teach people about firmware security.
Segment Resources: https://ost2.fyi https://darkmentor.com/timeline.html
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1. Learning About Firmware Security – Xeno Kovah – BTS #10
Firmware security is a deeply technical topic, that's hard to get started in. In this talk, Xeno will discuss some past work in firmware security, and how he has organized resources such as a low level timeline (with over 300 talks), and free MOOC classes, to help teach people about firmware security.
Segment Resources: https://ost2.fyi https://darkmentor.com/timeline.html
Guest
Xeno began leading BIOS security research projects at MITRE in 2011. His team’s first public talks started appearing in 2013, which led to a flurry of presentations on BIOS-level vulnerabilities up through 2014. In 2015 he co-founded LegbaCore. And after presenting a firmware worm that could spread between Macs via Apple’s EFI-based BIOS and Thunderbolt Ethernet adapters, he ended up working for Apple. There he worked on securing all the lesser-known firmwares on Macs and peripherals – everything from 3rd party GPUs to SecureBoot for monitors! He worked on the x86-side of the T2 SecureBoot architecture, and his final project was leading the M1 SecureBoot architecture – being directly responsible for designing a system that could provide iOS-level security, while still allowing customer choice to trust arbitrary non-Apple code such as Linux bootloaders. He left Apple in Dec. 2020 after the M1 Macs shipped, so he could work full time on OpenSecurityTraining2.
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