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+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html>
+ <head>
+ <title>vboot - Verified Boot Support</title>
+ </head>
+ <body>
+
+<h1>vboot - Verified Boot Support</h1>
+
+<p>
+Google's verified boot support consists of:
+</p>
+<ul>
+ <li>A root of trust</li>
+ <li>Special firmware layout</li>
+ <li>Firmware verification</li>
+ <li>Firmware measurements</li>
+ <li>A firmware update mechanism</li>
+ <li>Specific build flags</li>
+ <li>Signing the coreboot image</li>
+</ul>
+
+Google's vboot verifies the firmware and places measurements
+within the TPM.
+
+<hr>
+<h1>Root of Trust</h1>
+<p>
+When using vboot, the root-of-trust is basically the read-only portion of the
+SPI flash. The following items factor into the trust equation:
+</p>
+<ul>
+ <li>The GCC compiler must reliably translate the code into machine code
+ without inserting any additional code (virus, backdoor, etc.)
+ </li>
+ <li>The CPU must reliably execute the reset sequence and instructions as
+ documented by the CPU manufacturer.
+ </li>
+ <li>The SPI flash must provide only the code programmed into it to the CPU
+ without providing any alternative reset vector or code sequence.
+ </li>
+ <li>The SPI flash must honor the write-protect input and protect the
+ specified portion of the SPI flash from all erase and write accesses.
+ </li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>
+The firmware is typically protected using the write-protect pin on the SPI
+flash part and setting some of the write-protect bits in the status register
+during manufacturing. The protected area is platform specific and for x86
+platforms is typically 1/4th of the SPI flash
+part size. Because this portion of the SPI flash is hardware write protected,
+it is not possible to update this portion of the SPI flash in the field,
+without altering the system to eliminate the ground connection to the SPI flash
+write-protect pin. Without hardware modifications, this portion of the SPI
+flash maintains the manufactured state during the system's lifetime.
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+<h1>Firmware Layout</h1>
+<p>
+Several sections are added to the firmware layout to support vboot:
+</p>
+<ul>
+ <li>Read-only section</li>
+ <li>Google Binary Blob (GBB) area</li>
+ <li>Read/write section A</li>
+ <li>Read/write section B</li>
+</ul>
+<p>
+The following sections describe the various portions of the flash layout.
+</p>
+
+<h2>Read-Only Section</h2>
+<p>
+The read-only section contains a coreboot file system (CBFS) that contains all
+of the boot firmware necessary to perform recovery for the system. This
+firmware is typically protected using the write-protect pin on the SPI flash
+part and setting some of the write-protect bits in the status register during
+manufacturing. The protected area is typically 1/4th of the SPI flash part
+size and must cover the entire read-only section which consists of:
+</p>
+<ul>
+ <li>Vital Product Data (VPD) area</li>
+ <li>Firmware ID area</li>
+ <li>Google Binary Blob (GBB) area</li>
+ <li>coreboot file system containing read-only recovery firmware</li>
+</ul>
+
+<h2>Google Binary Blob (GBB) Area</h2>
+<p>
+The GBB area is part of the read-only section. This area contains a 4096 or
+8192 bit public root RSA key that is used to verify the VBLOCK area to obtain
+the firmware signing key.
+</p>
+
+<h2>Recovery Firmware</h2>
+<p>
+The recovery firmware is contained within a coreboot file system and consists
+of:
+</p>
+<ul>
+ <li>reset vector</li>
+ <li>bootblock</li>
+ <li>verstage</li>
+ <li>romstage</li>
+ <li>postcar</li>
+ <li>ramstage</li>
+ <li>payload</li>
+ <li>flash map file</li>
+ <li>config file</li>
+ <li>processor specific files:
+ <ul>
+ <li>Microcode</li>
+ <li>fspm.bin</li>
+ <li>fsps.bin</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>
+The recovery firmware is written during manufacturing and typically contains
+code to write the storage device (eMMC device or hard disk). The recovery
+image is usually contained on a socketed device such as a USB flash drive or
+an SD card. Depending upon the payload firmware doing the recovery, it may
+be possible for the user to interact with the system to specify the recovery
+image path. Part of the recovery is also to write the A and B areas of the
+SPI flash device to boot the system.
+</p>
+
+
+<h2>Read/Write Section</h2>
+
+<p>
+The read/write sections contain an area which contains the firmware signing
+key and signature and an area containing a coreboot file system with a subset
+of the firmware. The firmware files in FW_MAIN_A and FW_MAIN_B are:
+</p>
+<ul>
+ <li>romstage</li>
+ <li>postcar</li>
+ <li>ramstage</li>
+ <li>payload</li>
+ <li>config file</li>
+ <li>processor specific files:
+ <ul>
+ <li>Microcode</li>
+ <li>fspm.bin</li>
+ <li>fsps.bin</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>
+The firmware subset enables most issues to be fixed in the field with firmware
+updates. The firmware files handle memory and most of silicon initialization.
+These files also produce the tables which get passed to the operating system.
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+<h1>Firmware Updates</h1>
+<p>
+The read/write sections exist in one of three states:
+</p>
+<ul>
+ <li>Invalid</li>
+ <li>Ready to boot</li>
+ <li>Successfully booted</li>
+</ul>
+
+<table border="1">
+<tr bgcolor="#ffc0c0">
+<td>
+Where is this state information written?
+<br/>CMOS?
+<br/>RW_NVRAM?
+<br/>RW_FWID_*
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>
+Firmware updates are handled by the operating system by writing any read/write
+section that is not in the "successfully booted" state. Upon the next reboot,
+vboot determines the section to boot. If it finds one in the "ready to boot"
+state then it attempts to boot using that section. If the boot fails then
+vboot marks the section as invalid and attempts to fall back to a read/write
+section in the "successfully booted" state. If vboot is not able to find a
+section in the "successfully booted" state then vboot enters recovery mode.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Only the operating system is able to transition a section from the "ready to
+boot" state to the "successfully booted" state. The transition is typically
+done after after the operating system has been running for a while indicating
+that successful boot was possible and the operating system is stable.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Note that as long as the SPI write protection is in place then the system is
+always recoverable. If the flash update fails then the system will continue
+to boot using the previous read/write area. The same is true if coreboot
+passes control to the payload or the operating system and then the boot fails.
+In the worst case, the SPI flash gets totally corrupted in which case vboot
+fails the signature checks and enters recovery mode. There are no times where
+the SPI flash is exposed and the reset vector or part of the recovery firmware
+gets corrupted.
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+<h1>Build Flags</h1>
+<p>
+The following Kconfig values need to be selected to enable vboot:
+</p>
+<ul>
+ <li>COLLECT_TIMESTAMPS</li>
+ <li>VBOOT</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>
+The starting stage needs to be specified by selecting either
+VBOOT_STARTS_IN_BOOTBLOCK or VBOOT_STARTS_IN_ROMSTAGE.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If vboot starts in bootblock then vboot may be built as a separate stage by
+selecting VBOOT_SEPARATE_VERSTAGE. Additionally, if static RAM is too small
+to fit both verstage and romstage then selecting VBOOT_RETURN_FROM_VERSTAGE
+enables bootblock to reuse the RAM occupied by verstage for romstage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Non-volatile flash is needed for vboot operation. This flash area may be in
+CMOS, the EC, or in a read/write area of the SPI flash device. Select one of
+the following:
+</p>
+<ul>
+ <li>VBOOT_VBNV_CMOS</li>
+ <li>VBOOT_VBNV_EC</li>
+ <li>VBOOT_VBNV_FLASH</li>
+</ul>
+<p>
+More non-volatile storage features may be found in src/vboot/Kconfig.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A TPM is also required for vboot operation. TPMs are available in
+drivers/i2c/tpm and drivers/pc80/tpm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In addition to adding the coreboot files into the read-only region, enabling
+vboot causes the build script to add the read/write files into coreboot file
+systems in FW_MAIN_A and FW_MAIN_B.
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+<h1>Signing the coreboot Image</h1>
+<p>
+The follow command script is an example of how to sign the coreboot image file.
+This script is used on the Intel Galileo board and creates the GBB area and
+inserts it into the coreboot image. It also updates the VBLOCK areas with the
+firmware signing key and the signature for the FW_MAIN firmware. More details
+are available in 3rdparty/vboot/README.
+</p>
+
+<pre><code>#!/bin/sh
+#
+# The necessary tools were built and installed using the following commands:
+#
+# pushd 3rdparty/vboot
+# make
+# sudo make install
+# popd
+#
+# The keys were made using the following command
+#
+# 3rdparty/vboot/scripts/keygeneration/create_new_keys.sh \
+# --4k --4k-root --output $PWD/keys
+#
+#
+# The "magic" numbers below are derived from the GBB section in
+# src/mainboard/intel/galileo/vboot.fmd.
+#
+# GBB Header Size: 0x80
+# GBB Offset: 0x611000, 4KiB block number: 1553 (0x611)
+# GBB Length: 0x7f000, 4KiB blocks: 127 (0x7f)
+# COREBOOT Offset: 0x690000, 4KiB block number: 1680 (0x690)
+# COREBOOT Length: 0x170000, 4KiB blocks: 368 (0x170)
+#
+# 0x7f000 (GBB Length) = 0x80 + 0x100 + 0x1000 + 0x7ce80 + 0x1000
+#
+# Create the GBB area blob
+# Parameters: hwid_size,rootkey_size,bmpfv_size,recoverykey_size
+#
+gbb_utility -c 0x100,0x1000,0x7ce80,0x1000 gbb.blob
+
+#
+# Copy from the start of the flash to the GBB region into the signed flash
+# image.
+#
+# 1553 * 4096 = 0x611 * 0x1000 = 0x611000, size of area before GBB
+#
+dd conv=fdatasync ibs=4096 obs=4096 count=1553 \
+ if=build/coreboot.rom of=build/coreboot.signed.rom
+
+#
+# Append the empty GBB area to the coreboot.rom image.
+#
+# 1553 * 4096 = 0x611 * 0x1000 = 0x611000, offset to GBB
+#
+dd conv=fdatasync obs=4096 obs=4096 seek=1553 if=gbb.blob \
+ of=build/coreboot.signed.rom
+
+#
+# Append the rest of the read-only region into the signed flash image.
+#
+# 1680 * 4096 = 0x690 * 0x1000 = 0x690000, offset to COREBOOT area
+# 368 * 4096 = 0x170 * 0x1000 = 0x170000, length of COREBOOT area
+#
+dd conv=fdatasync ibs=4096 obs=4096 skip=1680 seek=1680 count=368 \
+ if=build/coreboot.rom of=build/coreboot.signed.rom
+
+#
+# Insert the HWID and public root and recovery RSA keys into the GBB area.
+#
+gbb_utility \
+ --set --hwid='Galileo' \
+ -r $PWD/keys/recovery_key.vbpubk \
+ -k $PWD/keys/root_key.vbpubk \
+ build/coreboot.signed.rom
+
+#
+# Sign the read/write firmware areas with the private signing key and update
+# the VBLOCK_A and VBLOCK_B regions.
+#
+3rdparty/vboot/scripts/image_signing/sign_firmware.sh \
+ build/coreboot.signed.rom \
+ $PWD/keys \
+ build/coreboot.signed.rom
+</code></pre>
+
+<hr>
+<h1>Boot Flow</h1>
+<p>
+The reset vector exist in the read-only area and points to the bootblock entry
+point. The only copy of the bootblock exists in the read-only area of the SPI
+flash. Verstage may be part of the bootblock or a separate stage. If separate
+then the bootblock loads verstage from the read-only area and transfers control
+to it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Upon first boot, verstage attempts to verify the read/write section A. It gets
+the public root key from the GBB area and uses that to verify the VBLOCK area
+in read-write section A. If the VBLOCK area is valid then it extracts the
+firmware signing key (1024-8192 bits) and uses that to verify the FW_MAIN_A
+area of read/write section A. If the verification is successful then verstage
+instructs coreboot to use the coreboot file system in read/write section A for
+the contents of the remaining boot firmware (romstage, postcar, ramstage and
+the payload).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If verification fails for the read/write area and the other read/write area is
+not valid vboot falls back to the read-only area to boot into system recovery.
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+<h1>Chromebook Special Features</h1>
+<p>
+Google's Chromebooks have some special features:
+</p>
+<ul>
+ <li>Developer mode</li>
+ <li>Write-protect screw</li>
+</ul>
+
+<h2>Developer Mode</h2>
+<p>
+Developer mode allows the user to use coreboot to boot another operating system.
+This may be a another (beta) version of Chrome OS, or another flavor of
+GNU/Linux. Use of developer mode does not void the system warranty. Upon
+entry into developer mode, all locally saved data on the system is lost.
+This prevents someone from entering developer mode to subvert the system
+security to access files on the local system or cloud.
+</p>
+
+<h2>Write Protect Screw</h2>
+<p>
+Chromebooks have a write-protect screw which provides the ground to the
+write-protect pin of the SPI flash. Google specifically did this to allow
+the manufacturing line and advanced developers to re-write the entire SPI flash
+part. Once the screw is removed, any firmware may be placed on the device.
+However, accessing this screw requires opening the case and voids the system
+warranty!
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+<p>Modified: 2 May 2017</p>
+ </body>
+</html>