Practical Introduction of CoreBoot® and STRAGEX
Kenji Motohashi, Kimihiro Iwasaki, Akira Yonahara, Akihiro Hayakawa, Masaomi Nakajima · NTT technical review · 2008
CoreBootCoreBoot is a network-booting thin client product that uses an iSCSI (Internet small computer system interface) storage system.It is a functionally enhanced version of the STRAGEX system developed by NTT Information Sharing Platform Laboratories, but made simpler and more convenient. CoreBoot featuresThere have been numerous information leak incidents in recent years, so sufficient measures against information leaks must be taken because they can have major effects on a company's trustworthiness and credibility, and hence on its continued existence.However, measures taken to prevent information leaks usually increase the company's operating and management costs.Furthermore, some security systems may interfere with the proper operation of applications and peripheral devices and thus reduce usability.CoreBoot solves this problem by providing functions that prevent information leaks, reduce operating and management costs, and achieve high usability. Prevention of information leaksCoreBoot prevents information leaks in three ways: (i) it is a diskless system, having no local hard disk, so information cannot leak when a personal computer (PC) is lost or stolen; (ii) the use of floppy disk drives, USB (universal serial bus) drives, and other such devices can be restricted, so that unauthorized removal of information via external memory devices is prevented; and (iii) central management of programs prevents failures to apply operating system (OS) or security software patches, so the latest anti-virus measures are always in place.A breakdown of the causes of information leaks and those that CoreBoot can prevent is shown in Fig. 1.Introducing CoreBoot can eliminate the causes of about 70% of all information leaks.2.2 Reduction of operating and management costs CoreBoot reduces operating and management costs by applying maintenance results on a single Core-Boot terminal to all of the terminals, accomplishing instant setup of a new CoreBoot terminal, and keeping data in a central storage device so that data backup and recovery is simple.Moreover, the server is accessed only during boot-up; after booting, the