Matthew Garrett <mjg59 <at> srcf.ucam.org> writes:
Hi,
there will be some posts on Fedora users and testers lists, so please take
a look.
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/users/2011-June/400539.html
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-June/100976.html
In the meantime, I got access to this mailing list, so all is well :-)
I have done some inventory on this topic, and have some questions.
The Intel Trusted Platform consists of two components:
- Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip
A hardware component, consisting of cryptographic processor and secure
memory.
- Trusted Boot
A software component, open-source and partially close-source (?) components,
in Fedora packages.
# yum install tboot
Installing:
tboot i686 20110429-1.fc15 fedora 355 k
Installing for dependencies:
trousers i686 0.3.6-1.fc15 fedora 279 k
Trusted Boot is a mechanism by which a pre-kernel/VMM module (that uses Intel
Trusted Execution Technology (Intel TXT)) performs a measured (pre-identified)
and verified launch of an OS kernel/VMM.
First, the obvious questions.
Why do you need Trusted Boot mechanism to ensure that identified and origin-
verified Linux kernel is booted ?
Why signing a kernel (a la GPG) is not good enough to verify its origin at
boot time ?
Now, regarding the Trusted Boot solution.
The obvious question:
why does an open-source distro like Fedora (but also Red Hat) want to
philosophically accept and technically support this solution ?
Will the TPM allow a third party remote access to the machine ?
Will the TPM be BIOS-configurable (enable/disable) by the user (hardware
owner) ?
If so, how will that impact the kernel selection in boot process (tboot
enable/disable) ?
How is that tboot blob module secured from tampering ?
By the virtue of beeing associated with the "root of trust" ?
If the Launch Control Policy can be created and modified by the user, then
what prevents an attacker from impersonating the usersysadmin, modifying
the policy, and causing a denial-of-boot or unintended-boot attack ?
There is more that this project implements (root of trust, etc).
Ref: tcsd(8)
Can that "root of trust" be compromised by TSS applications or any other
means (e.g. through tools provided by this project) ?
...
Ref: tcsd(8)
DEVICE DRIVERS
tcsd is compatible with the IBM Research TPM device driver available
from
http://www.research.ibm.com/gsal/tcpa and the TPM device driver
available from
http://sf.net/projects/tmpdd
Are these drivers open-source ? Is TPM device driver open-source ?
JB