MCUBoot OAD Image Header

All firmware images delivered via OAD are in binary format and contain an image header. The information in the image header is used by the application and secure bootloader to determine the suitability of an image for download or loading. In order to prevent this information from being calculated multiple times all MCUBoot OAD images use a standard image header.

This section explains the various fields within the image header and what they mean.

MCUBoot provides a tool to generate an OAD ready image, it is called Post-Build Script imgtool. By default, this tool runs as a post-build step of all OAD enabled projects.

MCUBoot OAD Image Header

The header contains the essential information required for all types of OAD across all supported wireless stacks. The core header must be present as the secure bootloader relies heavily on it to boot and OAD image.

Listing 204. MCUBoot OAD Image Header

#define IMAGE_MAGIC                 0x96f3b83d

#define IMAGE_HEADER_SIZE           32

struct image_version {
  uint8_t iv_major;
  uint8_t iv_minor;
  uint16_t iv_revision;
  uint32_t iv_build_num;
};

/** Image header.  All fields are in little endian byte order. */
struct image_header {
  uint32_t ih_magic;
  uint32_t ih_load_addr;
  uint16_t ih_hdr_size;           /* Size of image header (bytes). */
  uint16_t ih_protect_tlv_size;   /* Size of protected TLV area (bytes). */
  uint32_t ih_img_size;           /* Does not include header. */
  uint32_t ih_flags;              /* IMAGE_F_[...]. */
  struct image_version ih_ver;
  uint32_t _pad1;
};

Table 46. below shows a description of the core image header.

Table 46. Description of the core image header.

Field	Size (in bytes)	Description
ih_magic	4	Magic number checked by secure bootloader. Need to match for the image to be valid.
ih_load_addr	4	Where the image should be programmed at
ih_hdr_size	2	Header size
ih_protect_tlv_size	2	Sizde of protected TLV area
ih_img_size	4	Image size excluded header
ih_flags	4	The total length of the image including header
ih_ver	8	Version number of the image. Secure bootloader uses this field to determine which image to run.
_pad1	2	Not used but can be customized if needed