A Remote System Update Mechanization (RSUM)

Abstract

Distribution of product updates is an integral part of system maintenance and enhancement that is routinely provided by equipment developers as part of their extended product support to customers. Such refinements may affect hardware, software or both, and, though some processes are currently being used to provide similar capability, their functionality is limited in situations where destination systems are isolated or otherwise secured. In general, these utilities are not capable of concealing the actions performed for security-constrained updates. This paper addresses the development of a remote system update mechanization capable of efficiently performing, with minimal user involvement, not only software updates, but also firmware and reprogrammable electronic device settings modifications for a specific proprietary signal analysis system. By leveraging existing resident functionality, these features are implemented to achieve the desired distributed updates in an easy to use but obfuscated manner.