[flashrom] Fwd: BIOS Write Enable bit problem.

[Andrew Goodbody]

On 10/02/13 00:45, Rich Futyma wrote:
> Would happen to know which linux driver handles this interrupt?

SMM code is loaded into SMRAM during BIOS POST. Then the access to SMRAM 
is locked so that SMRAM is only visible when an SMI is active. The CPU 
cannot access SMRAM when no SMI is active. The CPU immediately starts to 
execute code from SMRAM once it receives the SMI.
There is no Linux code involved, this is all initialised before any OS 
code is loaded.

> Also, do you know where is this "correct handshake" described? It seems
> that once bit 1 is set it can only be cleared by the reset.

No. This handshake is not public knowledge AFAIK. It would not be much 
of a protection mechanism if everyone, including the virus writers, knew 
how to bypass it. I would expect the handshake to involve cryptography 
as well.

Andrew