1 U-Boot FIT Signature Verification
2 =================================
6 FIT supports hashing of images so that these hashes can be checked on
7 loading. This protects against corruption of the image. However it does not
8 prevent the substitution of one image for another.
10 The signature feature allows the hash to be signed with a private key such
11 that it can be verified using a public key later. Provided that the private
12 key is kept secret and the public key is stored in a non-volatile place,
13 any image can be verified in this way.
15 See verified-boot.txt for more general information on verified boot.
20 Some familiarity with public key cryptography is assumed in this section.
22 The procedure for signing is as follows:
24 - hash an image in the FIT
25 - sign the hash with a private key to produce a signature
26 - store the resulting signature in the FIT
28 The procedure for verification is:
31 - obtain the public key
32 - extract the signature from the FIT
33 - hash the image from the FIT
34 - verify (with the public key) that the extracted signature matches the
37 The signing is generally performed by mkimage, as part of making a firmware
38 image for the device. The verification is normally done in U-Boot on the
44 In principle any suitable algorithm can be used to sign and verify a hash.
45 At present only one class of algorithms is supported: SHA1 hashing with RSA.
46 This works by hashing the image to produce a 20-byte hash.
48 While it is acceptable to bring in large cryptographic libraries such as
49 openssl on the host side (e.g. mkimage), it is not desirable for U-Boot.
50 For the run-time verification side, it is important to keep code and data
51 size as small as possible.
53 For this reason the RSA image verification uses pre-processed public keys
54 which can be used with a very small amount of code - just some extraction
55 of data from the FDT and exponentiation mod n. Code size impact is a little
56 under 5KB on Tegra Seaboard, for example.
58 It is relatively straightforward to add new algorithms if required. If
59 another RSA variant is needed, then it can be added to the table in
60 image-sig.c. If another algorithm is needed (such as DSA) then it can be
61 placed alongside rsa.c, and its functions added to the table in image-sig.c
65 Creating an RSA key pair and certificate
66 ----------------------------------------
67 To create a new public/private key pair, size 2048 bits:
69 $ openssl genpkey -algorithm RSA -out keys/dev.key \
70 -pkeyopt rsa_keygen_bits:2048 -pkeyopt rsa_keygen_pubexp:65537
72 To create a certificate for this containing the public key:
74 $ openssl req -batch -new -x509 -key keys/dev.key -out keys/dev.crt
76 If you like you can look at the public key also:
78 $ openssl rsa -in keys/dev.key -pubout
83 The following properties are required in the FIT's signature node(s) to
84 allow the signer to operate. These should be added to the .its file.
85 Signature nodes sit at the same level as hash nodes and are called
86 signature-1, signature-2, etc.
88 - algo: Algorithm name (e.g. "sha1,rsa2048")
90 - key-name-hint: Name of key to use for signing. The keys will normally be in
91 a single directory (parameter -k to mkimage). For a given key <name>, its
92 private key is stored in <name>.key and the certificate is stored in
95 When the image is signed, the following properties are added (mandatory):
97 - value: The signature data (e.g. 256 bytes for 2048-bit RSA)
99 When the image is signed, the following properties are optional:
101 - timestamp: Time when image was signed (standard Unix time_t format)
103 - signer-name: Name of the signer (e.g. "mkimage")
105 - signer-version: Version string of the signer (e.g. "2013.01")
107 - comment: Additional information about the signer or image
109 - padding: The padding algorithm, it may be pkcs-1.5 or pss,
110 if no value is provided we assume pkcs-1.5
112 For config bindings (see Signed Configurations below), the following
113 additional properties are optional:
115 - sign-images: A list of images to sign, each being a property of the conf
116 node that contains then. The default is "kernel,fdt" which means that these
117 two images will be looked up in the config and signed if present.
119 For config bindings, these properties are added by the signer:
121 - hashed-nodes: A list of nodes which were hashed by the signer. Each is
122 a string - the full path to node. A typical value might be:
124 hashed-nodes = "/", "/configurations/conf-1", "/images/kernel",
125 "/images/kernel/hash-1", "/images/fdt-1",
126 "/images/fdt-1/hash-1";
128 - hashed-strings: The start and size of the string region of the FIT that
131 Example: See sign-images.its for an example image tree source file and
132 sign-configs.its for config signing.
137 In order to verify an image that has been signed with a public key we need to
138 have a trusted public key. This cannot be stored in the signed image, since
139 it would be easy to alter. For this implementation we choose to store the
140 public key in U-Boot's control FDT (using CONFIG_OF_CONTROL).
142 Public keys should be stored as sub-nodes in a /signature node. Required
145 - algo: Algorithm name (e.g. "sha1,rsa2048")
147 Optional properties are:
149 - key-name-hint: Name of key used for signing. This is only a hint since it
150 is possible for the name to be changed. Verification can proceed by checking
151 all available signing keys until one matches.
153 - required: If present this indicates that the key must be verified for the
154 image / configuration to be considered valid. Only required keys are
155 normally verified by the FIT image booting algorithm. Valid values are
156 "image" to force verification of all images, and "conf" to force verification
157 of the selected configuration (which then relies on hashes in the images to
160 Each signing algorithm has its own additional properties.
162 For RSA the following are mandatory:
164 - rsa,num-bits: Number of key bits (e.g. 2048)
165 - rsa,modulus: Modulus (N) as a big-endian multi-word integer
166 - rsa,exponent: Public exponent (E) as a 64 bit unsigned integer
167 - rsa,r-squared: (2^num-bits)^2 as a big-endian multi-word integer
168 - rsa,n0-inverse: -1 / modulus[0] mod 2^32
170 These parameters can be added to a binary device tree using parameter -K of the
173 tools/mkimage -f fit.its -K control.dtb -k keys -r image.fit
175 Here is an example of a generated device tree node::
180 algo = "sha256,rsa2048";
181 rsa,r-squared = <0xb76d1acf 0xa1763ca5 0xeb2f126
182 0x742edc80 0xd3f42177 0x9741d9d9
183 0x35bb476e 0xff41c718 0xd3801430
184 0xf22537cb 0xa7e79960 0xae32a043
185 0x7da1427a 0x341d6492 0x3c2762f5
186 0xaac04726 0x5b262d96 0xf984e86d
187 0xb99443c7 0x17080c33 0x940f6892
188 0xd57a95d1 0x6ea7b691 0xc5038fa8
189 0x6bb48a6e 0x73f1b1ea 0x37160841
190 0xe05715ce 0xa7c45bbd 0x690d82d5
191 0x99c2454c 0x6ff117b3 0xd830683b
192 0x3f81c9cf 0x1ca38a91 0x0c3392e4
193 0xd817c625 0x7b8e9a24 0x175b89ea
194 0xad79f3dc 0x4d50d7b4 0x9d4e90f8
195 0xad9e2939 0xc165d6a4 0x0ada7e1b
196 0xfb1bf495 0xfc3131c2 0xb8c6e604
197 0xc2761124 0xf63de4a6 0x0e9565f9
198 0xc8e53761 0x7e7a37a5 0xe99dcdae
199 0x9aff7e1e 0xbd44b13d 0x6b0e6aa4
200 0x038907e4 0x8e0d6850 0xef51bc20
201 0xf73c94af 0x88bea7b1 0xcbbb1b30
203 rsa,modulus = <0xc0711d6cb 0x9e86db7f 0x45986dbe
204 0x023f1e8c9 0xe1a4c4d0 0x8a0dfdc9
205 0x023ba0c48 0x06815f6a 0x5caa0654
206 0x07078c4b7 0x3d154853 0x40729023
207 0x0b007c8fe 0x5a3647e5 0x23b41e20
208 0x024720591 0x66915305 0x0e0b29b0
209 0x0de2ad30d 0x8589430f 0xb1590325
210 0x0fb9f5d5e 0x9eba752a 0xd88e6de9
211 0x056b3dcc6 0x9a6b8e61 0x6784f61f
212 0x000f39c21 0x5eec6b33 0xd78e4f78
213 0x0921a305f 0xaa2cc27e 0x1ca917af
214 0x06e1134f4 0xd48cac77 0x4e914d07
215 0x0f707aa5a 0x0d141f41 0x84677f1d
216 0x0ad47a049 0x028aedb6 0xd5536fcf
217 0x03fef1e4f 0x133a03d2 0xfd7a750a
218 0x0f9159732 0xd207812e 0x6a807375
219 0x06434230d 0xc8e22dad 0x9f29b3d6
220 0x07c44ac2b 0xfa2aad88 0xe2429504
221 0x041febd41 0x85d0d142 0x7b194d65
222 0x06e5d55ea 0x41116961 0xf3181dde
223 0x068bf5fbc 0x3dd82047 0x00ee647e
225 rsa,exponent = <0x00 0x10001>;
226 rsa,n0-inverse = <0xb3928b85>;
227 rsa,num-bits = <0x800>;
228 key-name-hint = "dev";
233 Signed Configurations
234 ---------------------
235 While signing images is useful, it does not provide complete protection
236 against several types of attack. For example, it it possible to create a
237 FIT with the same signed images, but with the configuration changed such
238 that a different one is selected (mix and match attack). It is also possible
239 to substitute a signed image from an older FIT version into a newer FIT
242 As an example, consider this FIT:
247 data = <data for kernel1>
249 algo = "sha1,rsa2048";
250 value = <...kernel signature 1...>
254 data = <data for kernel2>
256 algo = "sha1,rsa2048";
257 value = <...kernel signature 2...>
261 data = <data for fdt1>;
263 algo = "sha1,rsa2048";
264 vaue = <...fdt signature 1...>
268 data = <data for fdt2>;
270 algo = "sha1,rsa2048";
271 vaue = <...fdt signature 2...>
288 Since both kernels are signed it is easy for an attacker to add a new
289 configuration 3 with kernel 1 and fdt 2:
307 With signed images, nothing protects against this. Whether it gains an
308 advantage for the attacker is debatable, but it is not secure.
310 To solve this problem, we support signed configurations. In this case it
311 is the configurations that are signed, not the image. Each image has its
312 own hash, and we include the hash in the configuration signature.
314 So the above example is adjusted to look like this:
319 data = <data for kernel1>
322 value = <...kernel hash 1...>
326 data = <data for kernel2>
329 value = <...kernel hash 2...>
333 data = <data for fdt1>;
336 value = <...fdt hash 1...>
340 data = <data for fdt2>;
343 value = <...fdt hash 2...>
353 algo = "sha1,rsa2048";
354 value = <...conf 1 signature...>;
361 algo = "sha1,rsa2048";
362 value = <...conf 1 signature...>;
369 You can see that we have added hashes for all images (since they are no
370 longer signed), and a signature to each configuration. In the above example,
371 mkimage will sign configurations/conf-1, the kernel and fdt that are
372 pointed to by the configuration (/images/kernel-1, /images/kernel-1/hash-1,
373 /images/fdt-1, /images/fdt-1/hash-1) and the root structure of the image
374 (so that it isn't possible to add or remove root nodes). The signature is
375 written into /configurations/conf-1/signature-1/value. It can easily be
376 verified later even if the FIT has been signed with other keys in the
382 FITs are verified when loaded. After the configuration is selected a list
383 of required images is produced. If there are 'required' public keys, then
384 each image must be verified against those keys. This means that every image
385 that might be used by the target needs to be signed with 'required' keys.
387 This happens automatically as part of a bootm command when FITs are used.
390 Enabling FIT Verification
391 -------------------------
392 In addition to the options to enable FIT itself, the following CONFIGs must
395 CONFIG_FIT_SIGNATURE - enable signing and verification in FITs
396 CONFIG_RSA - enable RSA algorithm for signing
398 WARNING: When relying on signed FIT images with required signature check
399 the legacy image format is default disabled by not defining
400 CONFIG_LEGACY_IMAGE_FORMAT
405 An easy way to test signing and verification is to use the test script
406 provided in test/vboot/vboot_test.sh. This uses sandbox (a special version
407 of U-Boot which runs under Linux) to show the operation of a 'bootm'
408 command loading and verifying images.
410 A sample run is show below:
412 $ make O=sandbox sandbox_config
414 $ O=sandbox ./test/vboot/vboot_test.sh
417 Simple Verified Boot Test
418 =========================
420 Please see doc/uImage.FIT/verified-boot.txt for more information
422 /home/hs/ids/u-boot/sandbox/tools/mkimage -D -I dts -O dtb -p 2000
425 Build FIT with signed images
426 Test Verified Boot Run: unsigned signatures:: OK
428 Test Verified Boot Run: signed images: OK
429 Build FIT with signed configuration
430 Test Verified Boot Run: unsigned config: OK
432 Test Verified Boot Run: signed config: OK
433 check signed config on the host
436 Test Verified Boot Run: signed config: OK
437 Test Verified Boot Run: signed config with bad hash: OK
439 Build FIT with signed images
440 Test Verified Boot Run: unsigned signatures:: OK
442 Test Verified Boot Run: signed images: OK
443 Build FIT with signed configuration
444 Test Verified Boot Run: unsigned config: OK
446 Test Verified Boot Run: signed config: OK
447 check signed config on the host
450 Test Verified Boot Run: signed config: OK
451 Test Verified Boot Run: signed config with bad hash: OK
456 Hardware Signing with PKCS#11 or with HSM
457 -----------------------------------------
459 Securely managing private signing keys can challenging, especially when the
460 keys are stored on the file system of a computer that is connected to the
461 Internet. If an attacker is able to steal the key, they can sign malicious FIT
462 images which will appear genuine to your devices.
464 An alternative solution is to keep your signing key securely stored on hardware
465 device like a smartcard, USB token or Hardware Security Module (HSM) and have
466 them perform the signing. PKCS#11 is standard for interfacing with these crypto
470 Smartcard/USB token/HSM which can work with some openssl engine
473 For pkcs11 engine usage:
474 libp11 (provides pkcs11 engine)
475 p11-kit (recommended to simplify setup)
476 opensc (for smartcards and smartcard like USB devices)
477 gnutls (recommended for key generation, p11tool)
479 For generic HSMs respective openssl engine must be installed and locateable by
480 openssl. This may require setting up LD_LIBRARY_PATH if engine is not installed
481 to openssl's default search paths.
483 PKCS11 engine support forms "key id" based on "keydir" and with
484 "key-name-hint". "key-name-hint" is used as "object" name and "keydir" if
485 defined is used to define (prefix for) which PKCS11 source is being used for
486 lookup up for the key.
488 PKCS11 engine key ids:
489 "pkcs11:<keydir>;object=<key-name-hint>;type=<public|private>"
491 "pkcs11:object=<key-name-hint>;type=<public|private>",
493 Generic HSM engine support forms "key id" based on "keydir" and with
494 "key-name-hint". If "keydir" is specified for mkimage it is used as a prefix in
495 "key id" and is appended with "key-name-hint".
497 Generic engine key ids:
498 "<keydir><key-name-hint>"
502 As mkimage does not at this time support prompting for passwords HSM may need
503 key preloading wrapper to be used when invoking mkimage.
505 The following examples use the Nitrokey Pro using pkcs11 engine. Instructions
506 for other devices may vary.
508 Notes on pkcs11 engine setup:
510 Make sure p11-kit, opensc are installed and that p11-kit is setup to use opensc.
511 /usr/share/p11-kit/modules/opensc.module should be present on your system.
514 Generating Keys On the Nitrokey:
518 Reader ...........: Nitrokey Nitrokey Pro (xxxxxxxx0000000000000000) 00 00
519 Application ID ...: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
520 Version ..........: 2.1
521 Manufacturer .....: ZeitControl
522 Serial number ....: xxxxxxxx
523 Name of cardholder: [not set]
524 Language prefs ...: de
525 Sex ..............: unspecified
526 URL of public key : [not set]
527 Login data .......: [not set]
528 Signature PIN ....: forced
529 Key attributes ...: rsa2048 rsa2048 rsa2048
530 Max. PIN lengths .: 32 32 32
531 PIN retry counter : 3 0 3
532 Signature counter : 0
533 Signature key ....: [none]
534 Encryption key....: [none]
535 Authentication key: [none]
536 General key info..: [none]
539 Make off-card backup of encryption key? (Y/n) n
541 Please note that the factory settings of the PINs are
542 PIN = '123456' Admin PIN = '12345678'
543 You should change them using the command --change-pin
545 What keysize do you want for the Signature key? (2048) 4096
546 The card will now be re-configured to generate a key of 4096 bits
547 Note: There is no guarantee that the card supports the requested size.
548 If the key generation does not succeed, please check the
549 documentation of your card to see what sizes are allowed.
550 What keysize do you want for the Encryption key? (2048) 4096
551 The card will now be re-configured to generate a key of 4096 bits
552 What keysize do you want for the Authentication key? (2048) 4096
553 The card will now be re-configured to generate a key of 4096 bits
554 Please specify how long the key should be valid.
555 0 = key does not expire
556 <n> = key expires in n days
557 <n>w = key expires in n weeks
558 <n>m = key expires in n months
559 <n>y = key expires in n years
560 Key is valid for? (0)
561 Key does not expire at all
562 Is this correct? (y/N) y
564 GnuPG needs to construct a user ID to identify your key.
567 Email address: john.doe@email.com
569 You selected this USER-ID:
570 "John Doe <john.doe@email.com>"
572 Change (N)ame, (C)omment, (E)mail or (O)kay/(Q)uit? o
575 Using p11tool to get the token URL:
577 Depending on system configuration, gpg-agent may need to be killed first.
579 $ p11tool --provider /usr/lib/opensc-pkcs11.so --list-tokens
581 URL: pkcs11:model=PKCS%2315%20emulated;manufacturer=ZeitControl;serial=000xxxxxxxxx;token=OpenPGP%20card%20%28User%20PIN%20%28sig%29%29
582 Label: OpenPGP card (User PIN (sig))
584 Manufacturer: ZeitControl
585 Model: PKCS#15 emulated
591 URL: pkcs11:model=PKCS%2315%20emulated;manufacturer=ZeitControl;serial=000xxxxxxxxx;token=OpenPGP%20card%20%28User%20PIN%29
592 Label: OpenPGP card (User PIN)
594 Manufacturer: ZeitControl
595 Model: PKCS#15 emulated
599 Use the portion of the signature token URL after "pkcs11:" as the keydir argument (-k) to mkimage below.
602 Use the URL of the token to list the private keys:
604 $ p11tool --login --provider /usr/lib/opensc-pkcs11.so --list-privkeys \
605 "pkcs11:model=PKCS%2315%20emulated;manufacturer=ZeitControl;serial=000xxxxxxxxx;token=OpenPGP%20card%20%28User%20PIN%20%28sig%29%29"
606 Token 'OpenPGP card (User PIN (sig))' with URL 'pkcs11:model=PKCS%2315%20emulated;manufacturer=ZeitControl;serial=000xxxxxxxxx;token=OpenPGP%20card%20%28User%20PIN%20%28sig%29%29' requires user PIN
609 URL: pkcs11:model=PKCS%2315%20emulated;manufacturer=ZeitControl;serial=000xxxxxxxxx;token=OpenPGP%20card%20%28User%20PIN%20%28sig%29%29;id=%01;object=Signature%20key;type=private
612 Flags: CKA_PRIVATE; CKA_NEVER_EXTRACTABLE; CKA_SENSITIVE;
615 Use the label, in this case "Signature key" as the key-name-hint in your FIT.
618 $ ./tools/mkimage -f fit-image.its fitImage
621 Sign the fitImage with the hardware key:
623 $ ./tools/mkimage -F -k \
624 "model=PKCS%2315%20emulated;manufacturer=ZeitControl;serial=000xxxxxxxxx;token=OpenPGP%20card%20%28User%20PIN%20%28sig%29%29" \
625 -K u-boot.dtb -N pkcs11 -r fitImage
630 - Roll-back protection using a TPM is done using the tpm command. This can
631 be scripted, but we might consider a default way of doing this, built into
637 - Add support for other RSA/SHA variants, such as rsa4096,sha512.
638 - Other algorithms besides RSA
639 - More sandbox tests for failure modes
640 - Passwords for keys/certificates
641 - Perhaps implement OAEP
642 - Enhance bootm to permit scripted signature verification (so that a script
643 can verify an image but not actually boot it)