RE: Secure boot

Marte Myrvold — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 08:39:26 GMT

Hi,

Do you mean secure bootloader or Secure Partition Manager (SPM)? The latter was formally called secure boot, but the name was changed to Secure Partition Manager a while ago.

The secure bootloader consists of several images booted after each other. The images are verified by each other, and after all images have been verified, the application starts. This way, you can ensure that all code that is authorized and that your application is protected against running altered code.

SPM provides functionality for the Trusted Execution Environment of the nRF9160 and the nRF5340. Both the nRF9160 and the nRF5340 can run a "secure" and "non-secure" app side by side, where the SPM is the secure app, and is responsible for configuring the permissions and resources of the non-secure app and then booting it. If you want a better understanding of "secure" vs "non-secure", you can check out the chapter about this in this guide.

Best regards,

Marte