Tip of the Day: Virtualizing ‘Secure Boot’

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Today’s Tip…

This week’s tips have been about Generation 2 VMs.? Today’s tip is no exception.? We mentioned the virtualized UEFI earlier.? One of the added benefits of it is that it paths the way for another new addition and that is virtualized Secure Boot.

Secure boot was first introduced with Windows 7.

  • Checks signatures on early boot components

  • Hardens the VM boot process against malware

  • Requires a virtual GPT disk as the boot device

  • Supported with 3rd party operating systems that have signed boot loaders (needs a Microsoft key at the root of the trust)

Now that we have added virtualized UEFI, Windows 2012 R2 also brings us virtualized Secure Boot.