Modicon M580 - Integrity Verification of firmware files similar to EcoStruxure Control Expert

[MaPundir]

We should release firmware file's checksum list or hash, so that customer could check the firmware file integrity before loading it into their CPU, Communication Modules etc. at least for Modicon M580. 

[BevanWeiss]

I think there should be multiple parts to this:

1. firmware signing, and trust (likely through a standard certificate / CA system), this would prevent the bootloader/firmware loader from writing an untrusted firmware to the end device
2. checksum for user confirmation before/after shipping firmwares around, to avoid wasted time/effort in moving around corrupt firmware files.

For some safety systems I've even seen a second step of the firmware loading.  Where the end device does a checksum run across the 'as deployed' image, and presents this to the user for confirmation before going into operation.  Having such a step does make automated firmware deployments problematic however..