Windows Installation

CHIPSEC supports the following versions:
Windows 8, 8.1, 10, 11 - x86 and AMD64
Windows Server 2012, 2016, 2019, 2022 - x86 and AMD64

Note

CHIPSEC has removed support for the RWEverything (https://rweverything.com/) driver due to PCI configuration space access issues.

Install CHIPSEC Dependencies

Python 3.7 or higher (https://www.python.org/downloads/)

Note

CHIPSEC has deprecated support for Python2 since June 2020

To install requirements:

pip install -r windows_requirements.txt

which includes:

  • pywin32: for Windows API support (pip install pywin32)

  • setuptools (pip install setuptools)

  • WConio2: Optional. For colored console output (pip install Wconio2)

To compile the driver:

Visual Studio and WDK: for building the driver.

For best results use the latest available (VS2022 + SDK/WDK 11 or VS2019 + SDK/WDK 10 or 11)

Note

Make sure to install compatible VS/SDK/WDK versions and the spectre mitigation packages

To clone the repo:

git: open source distributed version control system

Building

Clone CHIPSEC source

git clone https://github.com/chipsec/chipsec.git

Build the Driver and Compression Tools

python setup.py build_ext -i

Note

If build errors are with signing are encountered, try running as Administrator The .vcxproj file points to the latest SDK, if this is incompatible with the WDK, change the configuration to a compatible SDK within the project properties

Turn off kernel driver signature checks

Enable boot menu

In CMD shell:

bcdedit /set {bootmgr} displaybootmenu yes

With Secure Boot enabled:

Method 1:

  • In CMD shell: shutdown /r /t 0 /o or Start button -> Power icon -> SHIFT key + Restart

  • Navigate: Troubleshooting -> Advanced Settings -> Startup Settings -> Reboot

  • After reset choose F7 or 7 “Disable driver signature checks”

Method 2:

  • Disable Secure Boot in the BIOS setup screen then disable driver signature checks as with Secure Boot disabled

With Secure Boot disabled:

Method 1:

  • Boot in Test mode (allows self-signed certificates)

    • Start CMD.EXE as Adminstrator BcdEdit /set TESTSIGNING ON

    • Reboot

    • If this doesn’t work, run these additional commands:

      • BcdEdit /set noIntegrityChecks ON

      • BcdEdit /set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS

Method 2:

  • Press F8 when booting Windows and choose “No driver signatures enforcement” option to turn off driver signature checks

Alternate Build Methods

Build CHIPSEC kernel driver with Visual Studio

Method 1:

  • Open the Visual Studio project file (drivers/windows/chipsec_hlpr.vcxproj) using Visual Studio

  • Select Platform and configuration (X86 or x64, Release)

  • Go to Build -> Build Solution

Method 2:

  • Open a VS developer command prompt

  • > cd <CHIPSEC_ROOT_DIR>\drivers\windows

  • Build driver using msbuild command:

    • > msbuild /p:Platform=x64

    or

    • > msbuild /p:Platform=x32

If build process is completed without any errors, the driver binary will be moved into the chipsec helper directory:

<CHIPSEC_ROOT_DIR>\chipsec\helper\windows\windows_amd64 (or i386)

Build the compression tools

Method:

  • Navigate to the chipsec_toolscompression directory

  • Run python setup.py build

  • Copy the EfiCompressor.cp<pyver>-win_<arch>.pyd file from build/lib.win-<arch>-<pyver> to the root chipsec directory

Alternate Method to load CHIPSEC service/driver

To create and start CHIPSEC service

sc create chipsec binpath="<PATH_TO_SYS>" type= kernel DisplayName="Chipsec driver" sc start chipsec

When finished running CHIPSEC stop/delete service:

sc stop chipsec sc delete chipsec