1. A method comprising: initiating a guest firmware component having a native execution mode; determining within the guest firmware component a beginning instruction of a set of one or more instructions executable in a legacy execution mode; emulating execution of the set of one or more instructions executable in the legacy execution mode within the guest firmware in the native execution mode of the guest firmware without transitioning to a virtual machine monitor; and ceasing emulation upon detecting an end instruction of the set of instructions executable in the legacy execution mode.