Ubuntu Lays Plans For Getting Past UEFI SecureBoot

An anonymous reader writes "Canonical has laid out their plans for handling UEFI SecureBoot on Ubuntu Linux. Similar to Red Hat paying Microsoft to get past UEFI restrictions, Canonical does have a private UEFI key. Beyond that they will also be switching from GRUB to the more liberal efilinux bootloader, and only require bootloader binaries be signed — and they want to setup their own signing infrastructure separate from Microsoft."

Comments

Kill with fire

[peppepz]

The right thing to do, would be to send UEFI and ACPI into the hell where they belong (2.045 pages for loading a fucking boot loader into RAM and jumping into it), and switch the PC architecture into using something more human, say, a kind of Open Firmware. For security, the firmware should pop up an alert telling the user that their boot loader has changed, asking him if he agrees with the operation. Which is the same security model that Windows has at runtime. Which is where the end user will catch 99.99999% of malware, since boot viruses in practice don't exist.

But no, instead they'll institute this ludicrous dance of keys which will impair the end user's boot experience (which is what UEFI should really be all about) without adding a gram of security (loadable modules at runtime = zero advantage from using "secure" boot).

Ubuntu Founder knows about signing ...

[os10000]

Hi Guys & Gals,

before you all get worked up, please remember that Ubuntu was founded by Mark Shuttleworth. Mark became a billionaire by running Thawte. Thawte is a certificate authority for X.509 certificates.

My take is he knows a thing or two about such infrastructures and I also think he is a positive influence for the free software world.

have a good day!

booting cd's

[fluffythedestroyer]

"Booting our CDs will rely on a loader image signed by Microsoft's WinQual key, for much the same reasons as Fedora: it's a key that, realistically, more or less every off-the-shelf system is going to have,...

So that means if my bootcd's that I create or the ones that I have like Hiren's boot cd, bartpe or any other won't work anymore if its not signed by MS ? That means the IT world will get a kick in the balls with this... like Hiren's will pay for the key

Besides, Microsoft made it clear that arm computers which is loaded with windows 8 will make it impossible to disable the UEFI. in other words, no other OS will be possible. Is it me or it's a very bad idea for all of us...except Microsoft which is clear what their intent is with this crap.

Re:The rootkit would just infect the kernel

[ebuck]

the bootloader can be configured to load a Linux kernel that chain-loads a compromised Windows kernel

That strikes me as an odd proposition.... The Windows kernel has a lot of requirements out of its bootloader. ...

While that may be true, GRUB has been booting Microsoft Windows for years now. It may have a lot of requirements, but obviously those requirements have been met.

What you might have forgotten is that boot loaders can simply call other boot loaders. It's call chaining, and it is exactly how GRUB boots Micorsoft Windows. You boot to GRUB, which might configure a thing or two (like hide Linux partitions), and then it boots NTLDR (or whatever the latest Microsoft loader is) and the Microsoft boot loader then satisfies all those requirements for the Microsoft Windows operating system.

It's absolutely possible, of course, but the sheer amount of hackery that is required to make it work is just mind boggling... at least to me. Can you link anything that explains your concept?

I won't link, but consider a mail forwarding service. They receive a letter, the might move it internally through a few mail boxes, and then eventually ship it out to you at your new address. What they don't know is that the new address could also be a mail forwarding service. Chaining two mail forwarding services together will still get the mail to the final destination address.

The above example pertains to boot loaders, except that you have the first boot loader set the environment to "boot something" which happens to not be an operating system (actually boot loaders can not differentiate between an OS and a boot loader, because at that level, there are just programs). Without the motherboard configured to only boot signed boot loaders, any number of intermediate boot loaders could be inserted which could then hijack the booting process, perhaps even to the point where they boot a pre-infected (by some means) operating system.

Hopefully this clears things up a bit. I know that boot loaders are only somewhat understood, even by those who use Linux quite a bit. I don't even pretend to be an expert, but it is clear to me that if you want to assure that a certain operating system is booted as it was delivered by the distributor, you need to control the entire boot process from power on to the kernel launch.

Linux's security model protects itself well post-kernel launch, but even Linux could be subverted by sloppy controls over the booting process.

Re:How much of the 'operating system' needs to sig

[SuricouRaven]

"So turn off UEFI Secure Boot."

And how long before Microsoft and/or the OEMs start saying you can't do that?

Re:How much of the 'operating system' needs to sig

[hairyfeet]

It isn't just plausible its pretty damned obvious. Go to TPB and you'll see they have "Windows 7 all versions pre-activated" DVD which will give you ANY version from Basic to Ultimate and they all get full Windows Updates using the bootloader hack. Since the hack involves using legit OEM bootloaders to shut it down they'd have to blacklist so many OEM desktops and laptops it'd be chaos so they might as well consider Win 7 a total wash when it comes to piracy.

As someone who works in a little PC shop if anybody at MSFT with any clout reads this? i have the solution to Windows piracy without any secureboot crap, ready? Win HP at $50, Win HP family packs at $100. I saw guys who had NEVER had a legit version of Windows buy when you had Win 7 HP at $50, in fact while that was going on I don't remember seeing a pirate version around, they were all legit HP. You jacked up the price and now Craigslist is filled with $100 PCs with $300 copies of Win 7 Ultimate on them.

so take a lesson from valve MSFT, the carrot don't work. Are you forgetting what happened with Vista? You made it originally pretty damned pirate proof, even having a kill switch, remember? it BOMBED because its those same guys that actually know how to pirate that support your ass by telling their families what to buy and supporting them. lets face it you've never made your big money at retail anyway, so selling Win HP at $50 isn't gonna kill you but it WILL turn a lot of pirates into actual paying customers because at $50 frankly it isn't worth the hassle to pirate. I'll be the first to admit the reason my family is running Win 7 HP is the family packs and if it wasn't for the 3 for $100 deal they'd be running hacked pro, paying $100+ a machine for HP when the machines themselves cost $250-$350 a kit? Not worth it. there is a sweet spot MSFT, and I'd argue its Starter at $35, HP at $50, Pro and the family packs at $100.