HARDWARE-ENFORCED FIRMWARE SECURITY

A Root of Trust hardware hierarchy provides firmware security for motherboard and peripheral devices. Power is received at a computer system and, in response to the receipt of power, of a standby power rail of a motherboard of the computer system is energized, and a first microcontroller mounted on the motherboard authenticates first firmware associated with a baseboard management controller mounted on the motherboard and coupled to the first microcontroller. If the authentication of the first firmware is successful, the baseboard management controller is powered on, a central processing unit coupled to the first microcontroller is held in reset, and a standby power rail of a peripheral component card coupled to the motherboard is energized. Second firmware associated with the central processing unit is authenticated using the first microcontroller and a second microcontroller mounted on the peripheral component card authenticates third firmware associated with a system on chip mounted on the peripheral component card and coupled to the second microcontroller.