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1 | Intel(R) TXT Overview: |
2 | ===================== | |
3 | ||
4 | Intel's technology for safer computing, Intel(R) Trusted Execution | |
5 | Technology (Intel(R) TXT), defines platform-level enhancements that | |
6 | provide the building blocks for creating trusted platforms. | |
7 | ||
8 | Intel TXT was formerly known by the code name LaGrande Technology (LT). | |
9 | ||
10 | Intel TXT in Brief: | |
11 | o Provides dynamic root of trust for measurement (DRTM) | |
12 | o Data protection in case of improper shutdown | |
13 | o Measurement and verification of launched environment | |
14 | ||
15 | Intel TXT is part of the vPro(TM) brand and is also available some | |
16 | non-vPro systems. It is currently available on desktop systems | |
17 | based on the Q35, X38, Q45, and Q43 Express chipsets (e.g. Dell | |
18 | Optiplex 755, HP dc7800, etc.) and mobile systems based on the GM45, | |
19 | PM45, and GS45 Express chipsets. | |
20 | ||
21 | For more information, see http://www.intel.com/technology/security/. | |
22 | This site also has a link to the Intel TXT MLE Developers Manual, | |
23 | which has been updated for the new released platforms. | |
24 | ||
25 | Intel TXT has been presented at various events over the past few | |
26 | years, some of which are: | |
27 | LinuxTAG 2008: | |
28 | http://www.linuxtag.org/2008/en/conf/events/vp-donnerstag/ | |
29 | details.html?talkid=110 | |
30 | TRUST2008: | |
31 | http://www.trust2008.eu/downloads/Keynote-Speakers/ | |
32 | 3_David-Grawrock_The-Front-Door-of-Trusted-Computing.pdf | |
33 | IDF 2008, Shanghai: | |
34 | http://inteldeveloperforum.com.edgesuite.net/shanghai_2008/ | |
35 | aep/PROS003/index.html | |
36 | IDFs 2006, 2007 (I'm not sure if/where they are online) | |
37 | ||
38 | Trusted Boot Project Overview: | |
39 | ============================= | |
40 | ||
41 | Trusted Boot (tboot) is an open source, pre- kernel/VMM module that | |
42 | uses Intel TXT to perform a measured and verified launch of an OS | |
43 | kernel/VMM. | |
44 | ||
45 | It is hosted on SourceForge at http://sourceforge.net/projects/tboot. | |
46 | The mercurial source repo is available at http://www.bughost.org/ | |
47 | repos.hg/tboot.hg. | |
48 | ||
49 | Tboot currently supports launching Xen (open source VMM/hypervisor | |
50 | w/ TXT support since v3.2), and now Linux kernels. | |
51 | ||
52 | ||
53 | Value Proposition for Linux or "Why should you care?" | |
54 | ===================================================== | |
55 | ||
56 | While there are many products and technologies that attempt to | |
57 | measure or protect the integrity of a running kernel, they all | |
58 | assume the kernel is "good" to begin with. The Integrity | |
59 | Measurement Architecture (IMA) and Linux Integrity Module interface | |
60 | are examples of such solutions. | |
61 | ||
62 | To get trust in the initial kernel without using Intel TXT, a | |
63 | static root of trust must be used. This bases trust in BIOS | |
64 | starting at system reset and requires measurement of all code | |
65 | executed between system reset through the completion of the kernel | |
66 | boot as well as data objects used by that code. In the case of a | |
67 | Linux kernel, this means all of BIOS, any option ROMs, the | |
68 | bootloader and the boot config. In practice, this is a lot of | |
69 | code/data, much of which is subject to change from boot to boot | |
70 | (e.g. changing NICs may change option ROMs). Without reference | |
71 | hashes, these measurement changes are difficult to assess or | |
72 | confirm as benign. This process also does not provide DMA | |
73 | protection, memory configuration/alias checks and locks, crash | |
74 | protection, or policy support. | |
75 | ||
76 | By using the hardware-based root of trust that Intel TXT provides, | |
77 | many of these issues can be mitigated. Specifically: many | |
78 | pre-launch components can be removed from the trust chain, DMA | |
79 | protection is provided to all launched components, a large number | |
80 | of platform configuration checks are performed and values locked, | |
81 | protection is provided for any data in the event of an improper | |
82 | shutdown, and there is support for policy-based execution/verification. | |
83 | This provides a more stable measurement and a higher assurance of | |
84 | system configuration and initial state than would be otherwise | |
85 | possible. Since the tboot project is open source, source code for | |
86 | almost all parts of the trust chain is available (excepting SMM and | |
87 | Intel-provided firmware). | |
88 | ||
89 | How Does it Work? | |
90 | ================= | |
91 | ||
92 | o Tboot is an executable that is launched by the bootloader as | |
93 | the "kernel" (the binary the bootloader executes). | |
94 | o It performs all of the work necessary to determine if the | |
95 | platform supports Intel TXT and, if so, executes the GETSEC[SENTER] | |
96 | processor instruction that initiates the dynamic root of trust. | |
97 | - If tboot determines that the system does not support Intel TXT | |
98 | or is not configured correctly (e.g. the SINIT AC Module was | |
99 | incorrect), it will directly launch the kernel with no changes | |
100 | to any state. | |
101 | - Tboot will output various information about its progress to the | |
102 | terminal, serial port, and/or an in-memory log; the output | |
103 | locations can be configured with a command line switch. | |
104 | o The GETSEC[SENTER] instruction will return control to tboot and | |
105 | tboot then verifies certain aspects of the environment (e.g. TPM NV | |
106 | lock, e820 table does not have invalid entries, etc.). | |
107 | o It will wake the APs from the special sleep state the GETSEC[SENTER] | |
108 | instruction had put them in and place them into a wait-for-SIPI | |
109 | state. | |
110 | - Because the processors will not respond to an INIT or SIPI when | |
111 | in the TXT environment, it is necessary to create a small VT-x | |
112 | guest for the APs. When they run in this guest, they will | |
113 | simply wait for the INIT-SIPI-SIPI sequence, which will cause | |
114 | VMEXITs, and then disable VT and jump to the SIPI vector. This | |
115 | approach seemed like a better choice than having to insert | |
116 | special code into the kernel's MP wakeup sequence. | |
117 | o Tboot then applies an (optional) user-defined launch policy to | |
118 | verify the kernel and initrd. | |
119 | - This policy is rooted in TPM NV and is described in the tboot | |
120 | project. The tboot project also contains code for tools to | |
121 | create and provision the policy. | |
122 | - Policies are completely under user control and if not present | |
123 | then any kernel will be launched. | |
124 | - Policy action is flexible and can include halting on failures | |
125 | or simply logging them and continuing. | |
126 | o Tboot adjusts the e820 table provided by the bootloader to reserve | |
127 | its own location in memory as well as to reserve certain other | |
128 | TXT-related regions. | |
129 | o As part of it's launch, tboot DMA protects all of RAM (using the | |
130 | VT-d PMRs). Thus, the kernel must be booted with 'intel_iommu=on' | |
131 | in order to remove this blanket protection and use VT-d's | |
132 | page-level protection. | |
133 | o Tboot will populate a shared page with some data about itself and | |
134 | pass this to the Linux kernel as it transfers control. | |
135 | - The location of the shared page is passed via the boot_params | |
136 | struct as a physical address. | |
137 | o The kernel will look for the tboot shared page address and, if it | |
138 | exists, map it. | |
139 | o As one of the checks/protections provided by TXT, it makes a copy | |
140 | of the VT-d DMARs in a DMA-protected region of memory and verifies | |
141 | them for correctness. The VT-d code will detect if the kernel was | |
142 | launched with tboot and use this copy instead of the one in the | |
143 | ACPI table. | |
144 | o At this point, tboot and TXT are out of the picture until a | |
145 | shutdown (S<n>) | |
146 | o In order to put a system into any of the sleep states after a TXT | |
147 | launch, TXT must first be exited. This is to prevent attacks that | |
148 | attempt to crash the system to gain control on reboot and steal | |
149 | data left in memory. | |
150 | - The kernel will perform all of its sleep preparation and | |
151 | populate the shared page with the ACPI data needed to put the | |
152 | platform in the desired sleep state. | |
153 | - Then the kernel jumps into tboot via the vector specified in the | |
154 | shared page. | |
155 | - Tboot will clean up the environment and disable TXT, then use the | |
156 | kernel-provided ACPI information to actually place the platform | |
157 | into the desired sleep state. | |
158 | - In the case of S3, tboot will also register itself as the resume | |
159 | vector. This is necessary because it must re-establish the | |
160 | measured environment upon resume. Once the TXT environment | |
161 | has been restored, it will restore the TPM PCRs and then | |
162 | transfer control back to the kernel's S3 resume vector. | |
163 | In order to preserve system integrity across S3, the kernel | |
164 | provides tboot with a set of memory ranges (kernel | |
165 | code/data/bss, S3 resume code, and AP trampoline) that tboot | |
166 | will calculate a MAC (message authentication code) over and then | |
167 | seal with the TPM. On resume and once the measured environment | |
168 | has been re-established, tboot will re-calculate the MAC and | |
169 | verify it against the sealed value. Tboot's policy determines | |
170 | what happens if the verification fails. | |
171 | ||
172 | That's pretty much it for TXT support. | |
173 | ||
174 | ||
175 | Configuring the System: | |
176 | ====================== | |
177 | ||
178 | This code works with 32bit, 32bit PAE, and 64bit (x86_64) kernels. | |
179 | ||
180 | In BIOS, the user must enable: TPM, TXT, VT-x, VT-d. Not all BIOSes | |
181 | allow these to be individually enabled/disabled and the screens in | |
182 | which to find them are BIOS-specific. | |
183 | ||
184 | grub.conf needs to be modified as follows: | |
185 | title Linux 2.6.29-tip w/ tboot | |
186 | root (hd0,0) | |
187 | kernel /tboot.gz logging=serial,vga,memory | |
188 | module /vmlinuz-2.6.29-tip intel_iommu=on ro | |
189 | root=LABEL=/ rhgb console=ttyS0,115200 3 | |
190 | module /initrd-2.6.29-tip.img | |
191 | module /Q35_SINIT_17.BIN | |
192 | ||
193 | The kernel option for enabling Intel TXT support is found under the | |
194 | Security top-level menu and is called "Enable Intel(R) Trusted | |
195 | Execution Technology (TXT)". It is marked as EXPERIMENTAL and | |
196 | depends on the generic x86 support (to allow maximum flexibility in | |
197 | kernel build options), since the tboot code will detect whether the | |
198 | platform actually supports Intel TXT and thus whether any of the | |
199 | kernel code is executed. | |
200 | ||
201 | The Q35_SINIT_17.BIN file is what Intel TXT refers to as an | |
202 | Authenticated Code Module. It is specific to the chipset in the | |
203 | system and can also be found on the Trusted Boot site. It is an | |
204 | (unencrypted) module signed by Intel that is used as part of the | |
205 | DRTM process to verify and configure the system. It is signed | |
206 | because it operates at a higher privilege level in the system than | |
207 | any other macrocode and its correct operation is critical to the | |
208 | establishment of the DRTM. The process for determining the correct | |
209 | SINIT ACM for a system is documented in the SINIT-guide.txt file | |
210 | that is on the tboot SourceForge site under the SINIT ACM downloads. |