Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Re: [PATCH 14/16] X.509: Add an ASN.1 decoder | From | Peter Jones <> | Date | Tue, 18 Sep 2012 18:19:06 -0400 |
| |
On Tue, 2012-09-18 at 19:51 +0100, Alan Cox wrote: > On Tue, 18 Sep 2012 18:34:12 +0100 > David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> wrote: > > > Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> wrote: > > > > > Why do this in the kernel.That appears to be completely insane. > > > > A number of reasons: > > > > (1) The UEFI signature/key database may contain ASN.1 X.509 certificates and > > we may need to use those very early in the boot process, during initrd. > > Ok that makes some sense. Presumably they've also got to fall within what > you trust and sign ?
The idea is that you implicitly trust keys in the lists maintained by your system firmware and/or shim ("mok") key databases, or else you shouldn't have Secure Boot turned on in the first place. Using these keys and hashes allows you to e.g. relatively easily add a key you're using to sign a module you're currently developing, while still *ahem* enjoying the many benefits of signed modules, kernel, and bootloader.
(Though obviously we would never recommend adding a public key whose private half you're normally keeping on that same machine.)
-- Peter
| |