Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with updating firmware for a chip are described. One example method may include performing an external verification of updated firmware received and stored external to the chip to determine if the updated firmware is authentic. Upon determining that the updated firmware is authentic, the updated firmware is loaded into the chip. An internal verification of the updated firmware within the chip is performed to determine that the updated firmware is authentic. The internal verification is assured to succeed based on the external verification. Because the internal verification will succeed, the chip avoids reverting to a default firmware.