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On Sat, Nov 19, 2016 at 07:20:56PM +0000, Fred wrote:
> On 2016-11-19 11:54, Andrew David Wong wrote:
> > On 2016-11-16 13:31, Fred wrote:
> > > A good time to ask if Qubes encrypts /boot in it's LUKS setup. I've
> > > not
> > > checked myself.
> > > 
> > 
> > By default, Qubes does not encrypt /boot. Traditionally, that's
> > because doing so would render the
> > system unbootable. However, that's no longer true with newer versions
> > of GRUB, which are now capable
> > of booting from encrypted block devices. So, it's worth considering
> > for Qubes. Tracking:
> > 
> > https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues/issues/2442
> 
> Yup. I know these days GRUB supports LUKS and things like mdadm, LVM etc so
> the days are hopefully gone since people need to worry about the position of
> /boot on disk or which esoterica are required to boot (and any intitrd
> issues).
> 
> I guess the bigger question is if it actually provides any real added
> protection? Someone can still re-install GRUB by booting from other media
> and reinstalling GRUB. If the authenticity of /boot can also be verified
> then maybe it does? But once physical access is gained the game is over I
> guess?

Yes, exactly - if any of the boot chain element can be tampered with,
attacker can subvert it to intercept disk password and/or infect further
elements. It doesn't matter if that's whole /boot, or just stage1 of
GRUB in MBR.
The situation is somehow better when your firmware can handle disk
encryption (like Coreboot with Linux or Grub payload can) - in this case
the whole disk can be encrypted and attacker would need to re-flash the
firmware - which is somehow harder, take more time etc. But still
doable...

- -- 
Best Regards,
Marek Marczykowski-Górecki
Invisible Things Lab
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
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