Steve thing about auto update on hardware

[PeterUK]

So things like routers, IoT, switches and AP are the main things you want to firmware update due to any vulnerability and that auto update is a good thing? Well I don't but hear me out...

let say you don't have a UPS well the worst that can happen is you have a power cut when doing the firmware update by auto or manual .

But what if you do have a UPS well worst case by auto the power cuts and and the firmware is updating seconds before the UPS gives up and the device did not complete the update in time. But if you do the update manually you know you have power so if you click start and right then a power cut happens it will be more likely to complete in time.

 

[peterblaise]

Appropriate and well-thought-out updates
keep the old version until the new version is
verified, so a power cycle in the middle of an
update just reverts to the prior version, so we
can try, try, try again.

Does anyone know of a vendor that promises
this, or a way to test?

Thanks.

 

[PHolder]

I worked on embedded development for most of my career. If you're not making the product the most dirt cheap you can, it's generally pretty easy to always have two working firmware images, a current and a future. You write the future version, and a checksum with it, and if it can't checksum on boot, then you fall back to the previous last known good. So, you know the write to the new version succeeded because the checksum is valid... and you can also throw in logic that counts the number of failed boots or recent reboots, and falls back to a previous version if the new version is having trouble coming up or staying up. This is not actually a hard computer science problem... it just costs a little more for the extra storage and memory and development/testing.

 

[MichaelRSorg]

Does anyone know of a vendor that promises
this, or a way to test?

Thanks.

Peplink routers have two copies of the firmware. I am a big fan of the company. They are high end and their cheapest router is the B1 for $300. More about it here
https://routersecurity.org/Peplink.B.One.router.php

And I wrote a blog in 2019 about some options for dealing with two router firmwares

A nifty router firmware trick

A nifty router firmware trick

michaelhorowitz.com

 

[PHolder]

Peplink routers

I kind of hoped, for the price, they would have some higher end network ports... at least 2.5G but full multi-gig would be an option. These days 1.5G, 3G, 5G and higher WAN speeds are available from some ISPs (certainly from Bell Canada fibre they are.)