On Wed, Oct 03, 2018 at 03:55:45PM +0100, Grant Likely wrote:
> On 02/10/2018 14:02, Daniel Thompson wrote:
> > On 25/09/2018 10:07, Ilias Apalodimas wrote:
> > > Hello,
> > > 
> > > Can we add a discussion in upcoming meetings about the participation
> > > of SMMU in the booting procedure?
> > 
> > If I were you I'd roll up to one of the Thursday meetings. There's
> > usually time for a bit of any other business.
> 
> I'll add it to the agenda.
> 
> > > In the past there's been a number of proposals on how to mitigate
> > > attacks, were a rogue PCI card is inserted into the system.
> > > Some of them include shutting down external DMA ports until the OS
> > > explicitly powers them up or blocking DMA using BME bit et >
> > > Keeping in mind this will enhance the security of devices would it
> > > make sense to include it as a 'MUST' if the hardware is present or a
> > > recommendation would be enough?
> > 
> > I'm not totally convinced this is in scope for EBBR (don't take this as
> > a firm "no").
> > 
> > Basically EBBR primarily focuses on the handover from system firmware to
> > OS[1].
> 
> Not entirely true. EBBR is a set of requirements on the system with regard
> to boot. We've definitely focused on the handover aspect, which is mostly
> interpretation of UEFI, plus covering areas UEFI doesn't touch like firmware
> stored on the block device. That has been the driver because it is necessary
> to get something supportable by distros.
> 
> However, it is appropriate to add additional requirements on system
> implementation/behaviour that goes beyond UEFI handover state.

Agree. There can be good reasons for this (it's why I used weasel
phrasing like primarily). However I'm not of the view that standards
are the best place to tackle implementation quality issues, at least not
before a conformance testing approach is clear.


Daniel.

> It is hard to say on this particular topic on whether we want it in EBBR
> because these kinds of things can have wide ranging impact. It may be better
> in a separate spec that specifically addresses building secure platforms,
> but we can certainly discuss it in the EBBR meeting.


> 
> g.
> 
> 
> > 
> > For full defense this is essentially a requirement about the state of
> > the system when we hand over from BL<something> to BL33 isn't it? It
> > might therefore be regarded as an implementation quality issue.
> > 
> > 
> > Daniel.
> > 
> > 
> > [1] It is true we have contemplated (but haven't yet acted
> >      on) imposing also imposing requirements on boot ROMs but this is
> >      only really to try and squash (mis)features that impose a
> >      requirement to pre-partition the media the OS will install onto.
> > _______________________________________________
> > Arm.ebbr-discuss mailing list
> > [email protected]
> 
_______________________________________________
boot-architecture mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.linaro.org/mailman/listinfo/boot-architecture

Reply via email to