diff options
author | Patrick Rudolph <patrick.rudolph@9elements.com> | 2019-02-21 12:04:21 +0100 |
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committer | Philipp Deppenwiese <zaolin.daisuki@gmail.com> | 2019-06-27 10:02:04 +0000 |
commit | 1b35295ec2fe6c30c862baf79b08526cd8b4f1c4 (patch) | |
tree | 5b81be28858a4dc550e4113614511238b9ca317a /Documentation/security | |
parent | eb20320d7bf4b0e5c6e60040656c19323486f9ea (diff) |
security: Add memory subfolder
Add files to introduce a memory clearing framework.
Introduce Kconfig PLATFORM_HAS_DRAM_CLEAR that is to be selected by
platforms, that are able to clear all DRAM.
Introduce Kconfig SECURITY_CLEAR_DRAM_ON_REGULAR_BOOT that is user
selectable to always clear DRAM on non S3 boot.
The function security_clear_dram_request tells the calling platform when
to wipe all DRAM. Will be extended by TEE frameworks.
Add Documentation for the new security API.
Change-Id: Ifba25bfdd1057049f5cbae8968501bd9be487110
Signed-off-by: Patrick Rudolph <patrick.rudolph@9elements.com>
Reviewed-on: https://review.coreboot.org/c/coreboot/+/31548
Tested-by: build bot (Jenkins) <no-reply@coreboot.org>
Reviewed-by: Philipp Deppenwiese <zaolin.daisuki@gmail.com>
Reviewed-by: Christian Walter <christian.walter@9elements.com>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/security')
-rw-r--r-- | Documentation/security/index.md | 1 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | Documentation/security/memory_clearing.md | 44 |
2 files changed, 45 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/security/index.md b/Documentation/security/index.md index 9ad54866c2..379375b616 100644 --- a/Documentation/security/index.md +++ b/Documentation/security/index.md @@ -6,3 +6,4 @@ This section describes documentation about the security architecture of coreboot - [Verified Boot](vboot/index.md) - [Measured Boot](vboot/measured_boot.md) +- [Memory clearing](memory_clearing.md) diff --git a/Documentation/security/memory_clearing.md b/Documentation/security/memory_clearing.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..3d985925d9 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/security/memory_clearing.md @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ +# Memory clearing + +The main memory on computer platforms in high security environments contains +sensible data. On unexpected reboot the data might persist and could be +read by a malicious application in the bootflow or userspace. + +In order to prevent leaking information from pre-reset, the boot firmware can +clear the main system memory on boot, wiping all information. + +A common API indicates if the main memory has to be cleared. That could be +on user request or by a Trusted Execution Environment indicating that secrets +are in memory. + +As every platform has different bring-up mechanisms and memory-layouts, every +The device must indicate support for memory clearing as part of the boot +process. + +## Requirements + +1. The platform must clear all platform memory (DRAM) if requested +2. Code that is placed in DRAM might be skipped (as workaround) +3. Stack that is placed in DRAM might be skipped (as workaround) +4. All DRAM is cleared with zeros + +## Implementation + +A platform that supports memory clearing selects Kconfig +``PLATFORM_HAS_DRAM_CLEAR`` and calls + +```C +bool security_clear_dram_request(void); +``` + +to detect if memory should be cleared. + +The memory is cleared in ramstage as part of `DEV_INIT` stage. It's possible to +clear it earlier on some platforms, but on x86 MTRRs needs to be programmed +first, which happens in `DEV_INIT`. + +Without MTRRs (and caches enabled) clearing memory takes multiple seconds. +## Exceptions + +As some platforms place code and stack in DRAM (FSP1.0), the regions can be +skipped. |