Windows Installation¶

CHIPSEC supports the following versions:
Windows 8, 8.1, 10, 11 - x86 and AMD64
Windows Server 2012, 2016, 2019, 2022, 2025 - 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 3.8 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

Windows PCI Filter Driver¶

Filter driver background

Since July 31, 2020 Microsoft has released Windows 2020-KB4568831 (OS Build 19041.423) Preview. Microsoft recommends to not access the PCI configuration space using the legacy API, as it might result in the Windows BSOD (Blue Screen of Death). The BSOD trigger condition is “Windows version >= (OS Build 19041.423) && Secure Devices (SDEV) ACPI table && VBS enabled”. Therefore, CHIPSEC now includes a PCI filter driver which supplements the original CHIPSEC Windows Driver to access the PCI configuration space. A system requires the PCI Filter Driver if the conditions above are met.

Windows devices that receive the 2020-KB4568831 (OS Build 19041.423) Preview or later updates restrict how processes can access peripheral component interconnect (PCI) device configuration space if a Secure Devices (SDEV) ACPI table is present and Virtualization-based Security (VBS) is running. Processes that have to access PCI device configuration space must use officially supported mechanisms.The SDEV table defines secure hardware devices in ACPI. VBS is enabled on a system if security features that use virtualization are enabled. Some examples of these features are Hypervisor Code Integrity or Windows Defender Credential Guard. The new restrictions are designed to prevent malicious processes from modifying the configuration space of secure devices. Device drivers or other system processes must not try to manipulate the configuration space of any PCI devices, except by using the Microsoft-provided bus interfaces or IRP. If a process tries to access PCI configuration space in an unsupported manner (such as by parsing MCFG table and mapping configuration space to virtual memory), Windows denies access to the process and generates a Stop error. For more detail please refer below link: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-client/performance/stop-error-lenovo-thinkpad-kb4568831-uefi

Filter Driver and Main Helper Driver Architecture