A lot of people have been asking why the Linux Foundation is concentrating on making sure there’s a Linux Boot solution for Windows 8 PCs that’s compatible with the GPLv3 requirements and not really doing anything about ARM (for which the current Windows 8 hardware requirements mandate no ability either to turn off secure boot or to replace the keys).

The answer to this comes in several parts: firstly in the PC space, Microsoft has an effective headlock on the OEM and ODMs: no desktop PC ships without a Windows compatibility sticker (the situation is different in the server market, but this is specifically about desktop PCs).  Therefore in order to continue simply booting Linux on laptops and desktops, it is a huge priority to find a solution to this problem.  Secondly: in the overall mobile marketplace, which encompasses tablets and smartphones, Microsoft has a very tiny presence: somewhere between 2-5%.  Linux (Android) has the majority presence: by some counts, Android is >50% in this market space with Apple a close second.  Therefore, a Microsoft mandate in an industry where they have no dominance is simply not really threatening (unlike the PC space where they have complete dominance).

The third problem is more philosophical: all Apple phones and tablets are locked down via cryptographic or other means (it’s not exactly the same as the UEFI secure boot lockdown, but it is similar) so it seems unreasonable to attack Microsoft but not Apple for doing this.  Additionally, a lot of Android devices also come locked down out of the box, so we haven’t even got our own house in order yet.  HTC and Samsung have bought into the argument that a flourishing mod rom ecosystem aids sales of mobile devices, so a growing number of Android phones ship with the oem unlock functionality (which turns off the boot lock in exchange for voiding the warranty) and thus we’ve been making considerable headway opening up the Android mobile ecosystem to the mod roms.  In this instance, I’d like to proceed with the economic argument and use persuasion to make at least the Android ecosystem more open.  Since Apple wants to retain a tight leash on what they regard as their hardware, I can’t ever see them doing anything other than battle with their mod rom ecosystems, and Microsoft is pretty much of the same mind set.  In the long run it cuts them off from external sources of innovation and limits their horizons to what their in-house engineers can think of, so I really believe that having Microsoft and Apple employ lockdowns will actually contribute, at least in part, to the rise of Linux on mobile devices.

The final argument is pragmatic: every apple phone and tablet has been rooted within a few weeks of release, so in practical terms, using cryptographic methods to lock determined users out of their own hardware is ineffective.  It’s actually rarely the cryptographic protection that’s broken; most often the rootkits exploit bugs and problems in the actual boot sequence itself.  So if the Surface (or Windows phone) hardware is really enticing, I’ve no doubt we’ll see a Linux variant running on it in the near future regardless of UEFI secure boot.

I’m pleased to announce that the Linux Foundation and its Technical Advisory Board have produced a plan to enable the Linux (and indeed all Open Source based distributions) to continue operating as Secure Boot enabled systems roll out.  In a nutshell, the Linux Foundation will obtain a Microsoft Key and sign a small pre-bootloader which will, in turn, chain load (without any form of signature check) a predesignated boot loader which will, in turn, boot Linux (or any other operating system).  The pre-bootloader will employ a “present user” test to ensure that it cannot be used as a vector for any type of UEFI malware to target secure systems.  This pre-bootloader can be used either to boot a CD/DVD installer or LiveCD distribution or even boot an installed operating system in secure mode for any distribution that chooses to use it.  The process of obtaining a Microsoft signature will take a while, but once it is complete, the pre-bootloader will be placed on the Linux Foundation website for anyone to download and make use of.

Philosophy Behind this Announcement

The Linux Foundation is committed to giving users freedom of choice on their platforms.  Conforming to this stance, we have already published a variety of tools to permit users to take control of their secure boot platforms by replacing the Platform Key and managing (or replacing) the installed Key Exchange Keys here.  However, as one of the enablers of the Linux ecosystem, the Foundation recognizes that not everyone is willing (or able) to do this so it was also necessary to find a solution that would enable people to continue to try out Linux and other Open Source Operating Systems in spite of the barriers UEFI Secure boot would place in their way and without requiring that they understand how to take control of their platforms.  Therefore, we also formulated a technical plan, which is implemented in this pre-bootloader, to allow distributions to continue functioning in a secure boot environment.

The current pre-bootloader is designed as an enabler only in that, by breaking the security verification chain at the actual bootloader, it provides no security enhancements over booting linux with UEFI secure boot turned off.  Its sole purpose is to allow Linux to continue to boot on platforms that come by default with secure boot enabled.  The Linux Foundation welcomes efforts by some of the major distributions (e.g. Fedora, SUSE and Ubuntu) to tackle the problem of taking full advantage of UEFI secure boot to enhance platform security and sees the pre-bootloader it is releasing as a stop-gap measure that will give all distributions time to come up with plans that take advantage of UEFI secure boot.

Technical Details

The source code for the pre-bootloader is available in

git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jejb/efitools.git

As Loader.c

It is designed to be as small as possible, leaving all the work to the real bootloader.  The real bootloader must be installed on the same partition as the pre-bootloader with the known path loader.efi (although the binary may be any bootloader including Grub2).  The pre-bootloader will attempt to execute this binary and, if that succeeds, the system will boot normally.  If the loader.efi fails to load with a security error (because it is unsigned), the pre-bootloader will stop at a splash screen and ask the user to confirm, by selecting a menu option, that they wish to continue booting loader.efi.  If this confirmation (which is the “present user” test) is successful, the pre-bootloader will then execute loader.efi without security verification (if the user denies permission to boot, the pre-bootloader will signal failure and the UEFI boot sequence will continue on to the next boot path, if there is one).  To facilitate repeat booting (and to make the pre-bootloader useful for booting hard disks as well as USB keys or DVDs) the pre-bootloader will also check to see if the platform is booting in Setup Mode and if it is, will ask the user for permission to install the signature of loader.efi into the authorized signatures database.  If the user gives permission, the signature will be installed and loader.efi will then boot up without any present user tests on all subsequent occasions even after the platform is placed back into secure boot mode.  The present user test splash screen that appears in secure boot mode asking for permission to boot loader.efi will also direct the user to a Linux Foundation website where we will gather details of how to place platforms in setup mode and advise the user how to do this, either to install the signature of loader.efi or to take full control of the platform by replacing the Platform and Key Exchange Keys.

Thanks to Matthew Garrett, we have copies of the keys from the Insyde reference platform.  As expected, the platform key is a self signed X509 certificate with /CN=Insyde/.  You can get it here (signature list, der).

The Key Exchange Key is a Microsoft X509 certificate with /CN=Microsoft Corporation KEK CA 2011/ It’s not self signed, it’s signed by /CN=Microsoft Corporation Third Party Marketplace Root/ you can get it here (signature list, der).

The Signature database contains three microsoft X509 certificates; you can get the signature list here.

1. /CN=Microsoft Windows PCA 2010/ signed by /CN=Microsoft Root Certificate Authority 2010/ (db.0.cer).
2. /CN=Microsoft Corporation UEFI CA 2011/ signed by /CN=Microsoft Corporation Third Party Marketplace Root/ (db.1.cer)
3. /CN=Microsoft Windows Production PCA 2011/ signed by /CN=Microsoft Root Certificate Authority 2010/ (db.2.cer)

The interesting thing to note is that while Insyde owns the PK (as the windows hardware certification requires them to), they have no other certificates in the system, so in secure mode any bios update they do must be signed by a Microsoft key.

As of commit a2185c6 sign-efi-sig-list: functional version for time based updates

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/jejb/efitools.git;a=summary

has the capability to construct runtime updates to the secure variables.  So far I’ve managed to add extra keys to db; replace KEK and take the platform into setup mode.

The Basics

The repository now contains an efi program Update.efi which can be run in User Mode (must be signed with a key in db or KEK) and supply authenticated updates to the keys.  So far, I’ve only implemented time based updates for X509 keys.

In order to construct and update, you must first convert from a PEM format X509 certificate to an EFI Signature List.  To do that execute

cert-to-efi-sig-list mycert.crt mycert.esl

The result will be a binary signature list in mycert.esl.  Now you take this binary signature list and append the authentication header that authorises the platform to accept the key into the signature database variable db

sign-efi-sig-list -a db KEK.crt KEK.key mycert.esl db.update

And this will create a KEK signed append based update to the db variable.  To apply the update, in the UEFI environment run

UpdateVars -a db db.update

And the signature will be appended.

Note that there is a trick to this.  Since the current qemu platform is locked down at boot time, the timestamp associated with the variables is the time the system was booted.  In order to prevent replay problems, the timestamp generated by sign-efi-sig-list is the current time plus one year.  This would be unacceptable for production, but it solves the huge annoyance where you have to boot the platform, then create the update and then convey it into the platform to keep the timestamps correct.

If you wished to replace the contents of db instead of  merely appending to it, remove the -a flag from both commands.

Taking the Platform into Setup Mode again

This is achieved by clearing the platform key.  To do this, create an empty signature list

> null.esl

And use this as the basis for a non append based update of PK:

sign-efi-sig-list PK PK.crt PK.key null.esl PK.update

Note: updates to PK must be signed with the current platform key.  Now apply this update to the running system

UpdateVars PK PK.update

And voila, the Platform Key will be cleared and the system reset into setup mode again.

Introduction

The UEFI specification (2.3.1c) defines several key stores and their formats:  The Platform Key (PK), The Key Exchange Key (KEK) The key database (db) and the forbidden signatures database (dbx).  This post describes the relationships between them all and how they’re implemented in the Tianocore reference implementation.  This means that not everything possible is implemented because Tianocore follows the Windows 8 hardware certification requirements closely.

UEFI Secure Variables

All of the keys are stored in UEFI secure variables (see section 7.2 of the UEFI specification).  A secure variable cannot be updated unless the person attempting the update can prove (with a digital signature on a specified payload, called the authentication descriptor) that they possess the private part of the key used to create the variable.  The UEFI specifications only allow two types of signing keys: X509 and RSA2048.  A secure variable may be cleared by writing an empty update (which must still contain a valid authentication descriptor).

Authentication Descriptor

The specifications allow two types of authentication descriptors: time based and monotonic count based.  Once a variable is created, it stores both the key that created it and the initial value for the time or monotonic count and will only accept subsequent updates signed with that key and which have the same update type (time based or monotonic count) that it was created with.  The reason for this is to prevent replay of previous updates, so a newer update must have either a later time or a higher monotonic count.  Once the update is accepted, the time or count is updated as well to the value in the authentication descriptor.

Setup and User Modes

When a platform is in Setup Mode, the secure variables may be altered without the usual authentication checks (although the secure variable writes must still contain an authentication descriptor for the initial key and update type but the actual authentication information isn’t checked).  In this mode, secure boot is turned off.

In user mode, the platform will check that any attempt to write to a secure variable has a validly signed authentication descriptor.  In user mode, the platform will also expose a secure boot flag (which is on by default).  If secure boot is set, it will only execute efi binaries which

1. are unsigned but have a sha-256 hash that is in db and not in dbx or
2. are signed and have a signature in db but not in dbx or
3. are signed by either a key in KEK or a key in db and neither the key nor the signature appears in dbx.

Platform Key (PK)

The Platform Key is the key to the platform and is stored in the PK variable.  Its job is to control access to the PK variable and the KEK variable.  In most implementations, only one key at once may be stored in PK and the PK may only be an X509 key.

If the PK variable is cleared (either by an authenticated variable write or by a special user present firmware action), the platform must immediately enter setup mode.

The PK variable may only be updated by an authentication descriptor signed with the platform key.

Note: The platform key may not be used to sign binaries for execution.

Key Exchange Key (KEK)

The Key Exchange Key is used to update the signature database and is stored in the KEK variable.  It may be used either to update the current signature databases or to sign binaries for valid execution.  In most current implementations, the KEK variable may contain multiple keys which may be of type X509 or RSA2048 any of which may perform the function of the key exchange key.

The KEK variable may only be updated by an authentication descriptor signed with the platform key.

The Forbidden Signatures Database (dbx)

The forbidden signatures database is used to invalidate efi binaries and loadable roms when the platform is operating in secure mode.  It is stored in the dbx variable.  The dbx variable may contain either keys, signatures or hashes. In secure boot mode, the signature stored in the efi binary (or computed using SHA-256 if the binary is unsigned) is compared against the entries in the database.  Execution is refused if either

1. The binary is unsigned and the SHA-256 hash of the binary is in dbx or
2. The image is signed and the signature matches an entry in dbx or
3. The image is signed and the key used to create the signature matches an entry in dbx.

Note: since unsigned binaries are automatically refused execution, the addition of a hash to dbx serves only to prevent that image being authorised by having an entry for its hash in the signature database (see below).

The dbx variable may only be updated by an authentication descriptor signed with the key exchange key.

The Signature Database (db)

The signature database is used to validate signed efi binaries and loadable roms when the platform is operating in secure mode. It is stored in the db variable.  The db variable may contain a mixed set of keys, signatures or hashes.  In secure boot mode, the signature stored in the efi binary (or the SHA-256 hash if there is no signature) is compared against the entries in the database.  The image will be executed if either

1. the image is unsigned and a SHA-256 hash of the image is in the database or
2. the image is signed and the signature itself is in the database or
3. the image is signed and the signing key is in the database (and the signature is valid).

The db variable may only be updated by an authentication descriptor signed with the key exchange key.

How Key Verification Works

Although key verification with either X509 or RSA2048 keys looks to be SSL standard, it isn’t quite: the key chain is only verified back to the key in the databases and no further.  This means that none of the keys has to be self signed, and that the usual ssl approach to verify all the way to the root CA isn’t followed.

Some consequences of all of this

As you can see from the above, the holder of the platform key is essentially the owner of the platform.  However, simply knowing the platform key (the private part) isn’t enough because in order to change the platform you have to be able to execute binaries and the platform will only execute binaries signed by a key either in KEK or db.  If you take control of your platform by installing a platform key, you need to ensure that this key (or another you control) is also added to either KEK or db so you can sign binaries with it and have them execute.

This page is a rolling brain dump of what I’ve discovered trying to get a tianocore UEFI secure boot platform up and running in KVM