From malware.news
![Diagram showing process of isolation in System Management Mode](https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/SMM-1.png)
Ensuring that the platform firmware is healthy and trustworthy is fundamental to guaranteeing that powerful platform security features like Hypervisor-protected code integrity (HVCI) and Windows Defender Credential Guard are functioning as expected. Windows 10 achieves this by leveraging a hardware-based root of trust that ensures unauthorized code like Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) malware cannot take root before the Windows bootloader launches.