Abstract: An information handling system may include a processor, a battery configured to provide electrical energy to components of the information handling system, and a basic input/output system (BIOS) communicatively coupled to the processor and embodied by executable instructions embodied in non-transitory computer readable media, the instructions configured to, when executed by the processor, in response to one of execution of a BIOS managed operation or a request for execution of the BIOS managed operation: determine an energy requirement for execution of the BIOS managed operation; determine an energy capacity of the battery; determine if the energy capacity is sufficient to satisfy the energy requirement; and limit one or more features of the BIOS managed operation in response to the energy capacity being insufficient to satisfy the energy requirement.

Abstract: Disclosed methods and systems consume vulnerability information from one or more security services associated with an information handling system. Based at least in part on the vulnerability information, a vulnerability status of the information handling system and/or an application running on the information handling system is determined. A vulnerability mitigation policy corresponding to the vulnerability status is determined and the vulnerability mitigation policy is then enforced while the vulnerability status persists. Enforcing the vulnerability mitigation policy may include restricting functionality of the information handling system, restricting execution of the application, or both.

Abstract: An information handling system may include at least one processor; and a wireless network interface adapter; wherein the information handling system is configured to: store credentials for a wireless network in a secure storage vault accessible from a pre-boot environment; and during execution of the pre-boot environment, connect the wireless network interface adapter to the wireless network based on the credentials without requiring user input of the credentials.

Abstract: An information handling system may include at least one processor; and a memory having instructions coded thereon that are executable for: receiving information regarding dispatch of replacement parts for a plurality of devices; determining a degradation rate for each device based on a weighted tree for each device, wherein the device is a root node of the weighted tree, wherein components of the device are child nodes of the weighted tree, and wherein alerts associated with each component are leaf nodes of the weighted tree; determining a device threshold for each device; and dispatching parts based on the weighted trees and the device thresholds.

Abstract: Disclosed systems and methods for handling failures in an information handling system enable one or more crash handlers to communicate crash handler notifications to an EC of the information handling system. The EC is configured to perform crash operations including detecting a crash occurrence associated with either a crash handler notification from any of the one or more crash handlers or an SMM crash event. The EC may extract and store crash context information associated with the crash occurrence. The crash handler notifications may be communicated to the EC as MBOX commands via a peripheral interconnect, e.g., an enhanced serial peripheral interconnect (eSPI). Detecting a crash occurrence associated with the SMM event may include initiating an EC timer responsive to receiving an SMM entry message from an SMM handler and detecting the EC timer reaching a threshold value before the EC receives an SMM exit message.

Abstract: Disclosed systems and methods for securing an information handling system monitor for certain predetermined events, and, upon detecting any one of the predetermined events, requesting ownership data indicative of the authorized or recognized owner. In some embodiments, the ownership data is conveyed via a digital certificate establishing a trusted relationship between the owner and the information handling system. The digital certificate cryptographically associates a manifest of the system's key components and a device identifier such as a service tag.

Abstract: An information handling system includes first and second storages, a basic input/output system (BIOS), and an embedded controller. The first storage stores telemetry data associated with the information handling system. The second storage includes a boot partition. The BIOS stores the telemetry data in the first storage. The embedded controller receives the telemetry data stored in the first storage from the BIOS. The embedded controller provides the telemetry data to the boot partition of the second storage over an out-of-band communication channel.

Abstract: Systems and methods for diagnostics and remediation for a split-boot architecture are described. In an illustrative, non-limiting embodiment, an Information Handling System (IHS) may include: a printed circuit board; a processor coupled to the printed circuit board; and a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises program instructions stored thereon that, upon execution by the processor, cause the IHS to: send, in a split boot architecture, one or more commands from executed firmware onboard the printed circuit board to executed extended firmware via a communication protocol; and based, at least in part, on a response or a lack of response from the executed extended firmware to the one or more commands, perform one or more responsive actions.

Abstract: Systems and methods for security for a split-boot architecture are described. In an illustrative, non-limiting embodiment, an Information Handling System (IHS) may include: a printed circuit board; a processor coupled to the printed circuit board; and a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises program instructions stored thereon that, upon execution by the processor, cause the IHS to: obtain one or more cryptographic keys associated with firmware onboard the printed circuit board; and verify extended firmware using the cryptographic keys.

Abstract: An information handling system may include a host system including at least one host processor and a basic input/output system (BIOS); and an embedded controller (EC) including an EC processor. In response to the information handling system receiving an instruction from a user to initiate a forced power off, the EC may be configured to: store diagnostic information indicating a state of the host system; and upon a subsequent boot of the host system, transmit information to the BIOS indicating the forced power off.

Abstract: An information handling system scans an extensible firmware interface system partition for a file path. If the file path is missing, the system determines information associated with the file path, and adds an entry in an extensible firmware interface system resource table based on the information associated with the file path.

Abstract: An information handling system has a storage device including a telemetry log, a BIOS configured to provide BIOS status data and BIOS security data, an OS configured to provide OS status data and OS security data, and a security management module. The security management module determines whether the information handling system is in a low-threat state or a high-threat state. When the information handling system is in the low-threat state, the security management module directs the BIOS to store the BIOS status data to the telemetry log and the OS to store the OS status data to the telemetry log. When the information handling system is in the high-threat state, the security management module directs at least one of the BIOS to store the BIOS security data and the OS to store the OS security data.

Abstract: Disclosed systems and methods employ an embedded controller (EC) to monitor password activity and, responsive to detecting the password activity satisfying a criterion associated with a security policy managed by the EC, take action to restrict access to and/or operation of the platform in accordance with the security policy. The monitoring of password activity may include monitoring unsuccessful password change and password unlock attempts in both a preboot and runtime operating environment and within any of various available boot paths including, as examples, an operating system (OS) boot path, a network OS boot path, and a service OS (SOS) boot path. The OS boot source may be one of various telemetry events reported to a cloud-based risk assessment engine. Monitoring password change and password unlock attempts may include monitoring how many unsuccessful password change and unlock attempts have occurred since a most recent successful password change or password unlock attempt.

Abstract: An information handling system includes a memory device having a system partition, and a BIOS. The BIOS instantiates a file system during a boot phase of operation of the information handling system. The file system detects function calls to access the system partition and applies a policy to determine whether to grant the function calls access to the system partition.

Abstract: Disclosed systems and methods address escalated vulnerability attributable to system down time. In at least one embodiment, a customer-selectable threshold of detection establishes the number of days a system is allowed to be “down” before forcing a secured update path as described herein. The threshold may represent a compromise and balance between inconvenience and security based on each customer's preference. Tracking of system down time or offline time may be managed via EC/SBIOS and a real time clock (RTC) timer. The system down time may then be compared to the customer setting, e.g., whenever the system is booted.

Abstract: An information handling system determines a battery charge level subsequent to power on. If the battery charge level is at a critical battery charge level, the system triggers a battery refresh process, and initiates diagnostics of the battery during the battery refresh process.

Abstract: An information handling system may include at least one processor and a computer-readable medium having instructions thereon that are executable by the at least one processor for: prior to initialization of an operating system, executing a first-party pre-boot firmware application, wherein the first-party pre-boot firmware application is configured to provide a graphics-mode interface; executing a third-party pre-boot firmware application, wherein the third-party pre-boot firmware application includes a visual forms representation (VFR); parsing, by the first-party pre-boot firmware application, the VFR; and displaying, by the graphics-mode user interface, a graphical user interface for the third-party pre-boot firmware application.

Abstract: An information handling system may include at least one processor and a computer-readable medium having instructions thereon that are executable by the at least one processor. The instructions may be executable for: prior to initialization of an operating system, executing a first-party pre-boot firmware application, wherein the first-party pre-boot firmware application is configured to provide system-level context information; executing a third-party pre-boot firmware application, wherein the third-party pre-boot firmware application is configured to receive the system-level context information from the first-party pre-boot firmware application; and displaying a user interface for the third-party pre-boot firmware application, wherein at least one element of the user interface is based on the system-level context information.

Abstract: An information handling system may include at least one processor and a computer-readable medium having instructions thereon that are executable by the at least one processor for: prior to initialization of an operating system, executing a first-party pre-boot firmware application, wherein the first-party pre-boot firmware application is configured to provide a rollback service for to settings changes; and executing a third-party pre-boot firmware application, wherein the third-party pre-boot firmware application is configured to access the rollback service of the first-party pre-boot firmware application to revert a change to a settings profile.

Abstract: An embedded controller (EC) of an information handling system is configured to detect and respond to anomalous conditions in which a pre-boot or runtime error has occurred and EC-local storage resources are not sufficient to store EC telemetry data, by redirecting the EC telemetry data through an available communication channel, e.g., SBIOS MBOX packets or ACPI MMIO, to offload the data to EC-external storage such as an ESP partition or Cloud storage. In a pre-boot mode, SBIOS may invoke a UEFI storage driver to write out EC log data to EC-external storage, e.g., SSD/NVMe device or the Cloud. In a runtime mode, the EC may be flagged by an OS bugcheck handler, e.g., via eSPI MMIO path, to save the log data. In an OS-context mode, ACPI methods may notify a persistent driver, e.g., Common Platform Services (CPS) driver, to write out the log to the EC-external storage.