| Message ID | 1351813330-23741-5-git-send-email-sjg@chromium.org |
|---|---|
| State | Superseded, archived |
| Delegated to: | Albert ARIBAUD |
| Headers | show |
Dear Simon Glass, In message <1351813330-23741-5-git-send-email-sjg@chromium.org> you wrote: > This option delays loading of the environment until later, so that only the > default environment will be available to U-Boot. > > This can address the security risk of untrusted data being used during boot. > > When CONFIG_DELAY_ENVIRONMENT is defined, it is convenient to have a > run-time way of enabling loadinlg of the environment. Add this to the > fdt as /config/delay-environment. Please explain what exactly this is good for, or which exact "security risks" this is supposed to fix. As is, I strongly tend to NAK this. Best regards, Wolfgang Denk
Hi Wolfgang, On Sat, Nov 3, 2012 at 5:30 AM, Wolfgang Denk <wd@denx.de> wrote: > Dear Simon Glass, > > In message <1351813330-23741-5-git-send-email-sjg@chromium.org> you wrote: >> This option delays loading of the environment until later, so that only the >> default environment will be available to U-Boot. >> >> This can address the security risk of untrusted data being used during boot. >> >> When CONFIG_DELAY_ENVIRONMENT is defined, it is convenient to have a >> run-time way of enabling loadinlg of the environment. Add this to the >> fdt as /config/delay-environment. > > Please explain what exactly this is good for, or which exact "security > risks" this is supposed to fix. Any time you load untrusted data you expose yourself to a bug in the code. The attacker gets to choose the data so can sometimes carefully craft it to exploit a bug. We try to avoid touching user-controlled data during a verified boot unless strictly necessary. Since the default environment is good enough in this case (or you would just change it), this gets around the problem by just not loading the environment. > > As is, I strongly tend to NAK this. > > Best regards, > > Wolfgang Denk Regards, Simon > > -- > DENX Software Engineering GmbH, MD: Wolfgang Denk & Detlev Zundel > HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany > Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-10 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: wd@denx.de > In the beginning, there was nothing, which exploded. > - Terry Pratchett, _Lords and Ladies_
Am Donnerstag, den 01.11.2012, 16:42 -0700 schrieb Simon Glass: > This option delays loading of the environment until later, so that only the > default environment will be available to U-Boot. > > This can address the security risk of untrusted data being used during boot. > > When CONFIG_DELAY_ENVIRONMENT is defined, it is convenient to have a > run-time way of enabling loadinlg of the environment. Add this to the > fdt as /config/delay-environment. > It's really unfortunate to only realize this after the final release of v2013.01 as I haven't tested the -rc3, but this breaks environment for almost all Tegra boards. I haven't checked all of them, but the ones I looked at have CONFIG_OF_CONTROL defined, but no load-environment node in the FDT. So they're all going straight into "secure boot" mode, because of the bogus standard value of not allowing env to load, which is probably not what most people want. Regards, Lucas > --- [...] > /* > - ************************************************************************ > + * Tell if it's OK to load the environment early in boot. > + * > + * If CONFIG_OF_CONFIG is defined, we'll check with the FDT to see > + * if this is OK (defaulting to saying it's not OK). > + * > + * NOTE: Loading the environment early can be a bad idea if security is > + * important, since no verification is done on the environment. > + * > + * @return 0 if environment should not be loaded, !=0 if it is ok to load > + */ > +static int should_load_env(void) > +{ > +#ifdef CONFIG_OF_CONTROL > + return fdtdec_get_config_int(gd->fdt_blob, "load-environment", 0); > +#elif defined CONFIG_DELAY_ENVIRONMENT > + return 0; > +#else > + return 1; > +#endif > +} > + [...]
Hi Lucas, On Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 4:06 AM, Lucas Stach <dev@lynxeye.de> wrote: > Am Donnerstag, den 01.11.2012, 16:42 -0700 schrieb Simon Glass: >> This option delays loading of the environment until later, so that only the >> default environment will be available to U-Boot. >> >> This can address the security risk of untrusted data being used during boot. >> >> When CONFIG_DELAY_ENVIRONMENT is defined, it is convenient to have a >> run-time way of enabling loadinlg of the environment. Add this to the >> fdt as /config/delay-environment. >> > It's really unfortunate to only realize this after the final release of > v2013.01 as I haven't tested the -rc3, but this breaks environment for > almost all Tegra boards. I haven't checked all of them, but the ones I > looked at have CONFIG_OF_CONTROL defined, but no load-environment node > in the FDT. > > So they're all going straight into "secure boot" mode, because of the > bogus standard value of not allowing env to load, which is probably not > what most people want. Hmmm yes I think you are right - the value would be better the other way around. I will create a patch for this and see what people think. I have tended to create my own FDT file but I'm sure many will not. Regards, Simon > > Regards, > Lucas >> --- > [...] >> /* >> - ************************************************************************ >> + * Tell if it's OK to load the environment early in boot. >> + * >> + * If CONFIG_OF_CONFIG is defined, we'll check with the FDT to see >> + * if this is OK (defaulting to saying it's not OK). >> + * >> + * NOTE: Loading the environment early can be a bad idea if security is >> + * important, since no verification is done on the environment. >> + * >> + * @return 0 if environment should not be loaded, !=0 if it is ok to load >> + */ >> +static int should_load_env(void) >> +{ >> +#ifdef CONFIG_OF_CONTROL >> + return fdtdec_get_config_int(gd->fdt_blob, "load-environment", 0); >> +#elif defined CONFIG_DELAY_ENVIRONMENT >> + return 0; >> +#else >> + return 1; >> +#endif >> +} >> + > [...] >
diff --git a/README b/README index 22fd6b7..589e22a 100644 --- a/README +++ b/README @@ -2311,6 +2311,15 @@ CBFS (Coreboot Filesystem) support - CONFIG_SYS_VENDOR - CONFIG_SYS_SOC + CONFIG_DELAY_ENVIRONMENT + + Normally the environment is loaded when the board is + intialised so that it is available to U-Boot. This inhibits + that so that the environment is not available until + explicitly loaded later by U-Boot code. With CONFIG_OF_CONTROL + this is instead controlled by the value of + /config/load-environment. + - DataFlash Support: CONFIG_HAS_DATAFLASH diff --git a/arch/arm/lib/board.c b/arch/arm/lib/board.c index 2ec6a43..d3053d8 100644 --- a/arch/arm/lib/board.c +++ b/arch/arm/lib/board.c @@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ #include <common.h> #include <command.h> +#include <environment.h> #include <malloc.h> #include <stdio_dev.h> #include <version.h> @@ -469,7 +470,28 @@ static char *failed = "*** failed ***\n"; #endif /* - ************************************************************************ + * Tell if it's OK to load the environment early in boot. + * + * If CONFIG_OF_CONFIG is defined, we'll check with the FDT to see + * if this is OK (defaulting to saying it's not OK). + * + * NOTE: Loading the environment early can be a bad idea if security is + * important, since no verification is done on the environment. + * + * @return 0 if environment should not be loaded, !=0 if it is ok to load + */ +static int should_load_env(void) +{ +#ifdef CONFIG_OF_CONTROL + return fdtdec_get_config_int(gd->fdt_blob, "load-environment", 0); +#elif defined CONFIG_DELAY_ENVIRONMENT + return 0; +#else + return 1; +#endif +} + +/************************************************************************ * * This is the next part if the initialization sequence: we are now * running from RAM and have a "normal" C environment, i. e. global @@ -575,7 +597,10 @@ void board_init_r(gd_t *id, ulong dest_addr) #endif /* initialize environment */ - env_relocate(); + if (should_load_env()) + env_relocate(); + else + set_default_env(NULL); #if defined(CONFIG_CMD_PCI) || defined(CONFIG_PCI) arm_pci_init();