Even if you don't want to dual boot windows, 95% of this guide still applies. It could even be more secure since you don't need the Microsoft secure boot keys.
This guide started as my personal documentation of this process for my own reference, and grew to become the monstrosity you see below. I am not a security expert. I am a software developer with experience primarily in web development and this guide is the culmination of my own research into this topic and is by no means meant to impart any sort of sound security advice. It is up to you to determine if the setup described here is suitably secure for your needs. The safeboot project has an excellent page that describes all the types of attacks that they protect against and how they prevent them. You may well find their work to be more suitable to your needs. It is indisputably more secure, but at the cost of some convenience.
If something included in this guide is totally wrong, bad practice, or fundamentally insecure please open an issue, submit a pull request, or otherwise contact me. I welcome the feedback!
I am daily driving this setup on all of my machines and will continue to fix issues as I encounter them. Many many many hours of repetitive manual testing went into creating the scripts in this repo, but I know there are still bugs. Consider this to be somewhere between alpha and beta software and note the complete lack of warranty as stated in the licence file.
- Introduction
- Before You Begin
- How Bitlocker securely encrypts your drive without requiring a password at every boot
- Secure Boot and how it works
- Overview (TLDR)
- Installing Arch Linux on an Encrypted Disk alongside Windows with Bitlocker
- Preparation
- Sealing your LUKS Passphrase with TPM 2.0
- Generate a primary key
- Add Authorization for Dictionary Attack Lockout
- Generate the new LUKS passphrase just for the TPM
- Create a policy to seal the passphrase with
- Seal the LUKS passphrase with a persistent sealing object under the primary key
- Creating an authorized policy to unseal the LUKS passphrase on boot
- Testing everything so far
- Securing the boot process
- Taking Control of Secure Boot
- Securing the BIOS
- Securing grub
- Automating Everything
- Conclusion
- Resources
So you want to dual boot Arch Linux and Windows 10, both with disk encryption. On Windows you have bitlocker turned on which encrypts your disk without requiring a password on every boot. Then you disable secure boot to install Arch and now bitlocker is demanding that you either turn secure boot back on, or enter your recovery key each and every time you boot windows. Not ideal. This guide will help you take control of secure boot on your computer so that you can sign your Linux kernel and run it with secure boot turned on, as well as show you how to set up "bitlocker-like" disk encryption for your Linux partition (so you don't have to enter a password every time for Linux either). We'll even take it a step further and add a second factor to the unlock process by requiring data stored on a USB flash drive that you keep with you.
It is not for beginners, and expects a certain knowledge level of Linux, or at least an ability to look things up and learn as you go, just as with many other aspects of running Arch Linux as opposed to Ubuntu or similar "user friendly" distributions. While this guide attempts to include as many details as possible, it is far from exhaustive, and it is up to you to fill in the gaps and make any adjustments that you deem necessary for your situation.
You want to disable Windows Bitlocker before proceeding, as we will be making changes that will result in the TPM not releasing the keys needed to decrypt the disk automatically. Read on to understand what this means (in fact, it is strongly suggested that you read the entire guide and suggested reference material before you begin so you can do further research to answer any questions you might have). The actual procedure described in this guide should only take an hour or two if you already know what you are doing (because you read the guide through first or are otherwise already knowledgeable).
For disk encryption on Linux, it is easier to setup before installing Linux, as it involves the creation of a new encrypted logical volume on top of a physical partition. Alternatively, you can take a backup, or use remaining free space on the disk temporarily. This guide will only cover encrypting a new Linux installation (it briefly runs through installing a barebones Arch Linux system).
The beginning part of this guide assumes you are using a recent copy of the Arch Linux Live Disk.
Before diving into the how-to part of this guide, it is important to understand on a basic level how Bitlocker and the hardware it depends on works in order to be able to setup a similar system for Linux. In short, Bitlocker works by storing your disk's encryption key in a hardware device called a Trusted Platform Module, or TPM, and the key is only released if the computer boots in a trusted configuration.
For a good overview of what a TPM is and what it can do, go read this and the first chapter of this book (or all of it really). That free book is arguably the single most useful resource for understanding the otherwise poorly documented TPM. Note that here "poorly" is meant as in it is difficult to understand the documentation, not that every little detail isn't documented and specified (because it really is).
The TPM can do a lot of things, but in the case of Bitlocker (as well as what we are about to do in Linux) it is used to cryptographically secure our disk encryption key in such a way that it can only be retrieved if the machine boots with the software we expect (Platform Integrity). This means that if someone where to try to boot from a live disk, or replace your bootloader or kernel (evil maid attack), the TPM will not release the disk encryption key.
"But wait, I read that Wikipedia page! It said there were ways extract secrets from TPMs!" Yes, it's not a flawless system, but if you read further about it, the only people with the resources to carry out such attacks probably already have your data, if they even want it. Joe Smith who picks up your lost laptop bag on the train and takes it home won't be able to. Consider what your realistic threat model is, and if this is something you need to be concerned with, this guide isn't what you need. Instead, you may want to get yourself some sort of force field to repel any $5 wrenches that might be swung in your direction.
This section will really only scratch the surface, but it should give enough of an overview of how the TPM works that you will understand it's usage in this guide. Again, the free ebook linked above contains a wealth of information if you want to do a true deep dive. You probably won't find a better resource.
Note that this guide assumes you are using a TPM that implements TPM 2.0, not TPM 1.2
Platform Configuration Registers, or PCRs are the key feature of the TPM that we will be using. They are volatile memory locations within the TPM where the computer's firmware records "measurements" of the software that executes during the boot process (and possibly after boot as well). The values of the PCRs can be used to "seal" an encryption key (or another TPM object) with a policy that only allows the key to be released if the PCRs have the same value as they did when the policy was created (which is up to the user to determine is a trusted configuration). This is secure because unlike CPU registers, PCRs cannot be overwritten or reset. They can only be "extended". All PCRs are initialized to zero at first power. Measurements are "extended" into the PCR by the firmware by passing the measurement to the TPM, which then "ORs" that data with the existing data in the PCR, takes a cryptographic hash of the new value (usually sha1 or sha256) and then writes the hash digest to the PCR. "Measurements" are typically another cryptographic hash of the software binary or other data (such as configuration data) that is being measured.
A minimum of 24 PCRs are required on a standard PC, though some TPMs may have more, or might have multiple "banks" of 24 that use different hash algorithms.
Different PCRs contain measurements of different parts of the boot process. The Trusted Computing Group (TCG), the creators of the TPM specification, define which values should be extended into each PCR.
It took me far too long to find this information unfortunately. It wasn't in the TPM 2.0 Library Specification, or the PC Client Platform TPM Profile Specification. It can be found in the PC Client Platform Firmware Profile
Specification. The TCG seem to have the unfortunate philosophy of "don't repeat yourself ever if at all possible" so you have to read parts of multiple documents to get the full picture of anything. To save you from all that, the relevant parts have been boiled down into the table below. This table is not exhaustive, which is why nearly a quarter of the firmware specification deals directly with PCR usage. However it should give you a good idea of what values are supposed to be measured into each PCR so that you know when to expect the values to change (such as when you update your BIOS, Kernel, or Bootloader).
| PCRÂ Â Â | Description |
|---|---|
| 0 | UEFI BIOS Firmware, Embedded Device Drivers for non-removable hardware and other data from motherboard ROM. |
| 1 | UEFI BIOS Configuration Settings, UEFI Boot Entries, UEFI Boot Order and other data from motherboard NVRAM and CMOS that is related to the firmware and drivers measured into PCR 0. |
| 2 | UEFI Drivers and Applications for removable hardware such as adapter cards (including graphics cards). Eg. Many modern laptops have a wifi module and an m.2 ssd plugged into the motherboard rather than soldered on. |
| 3 | UEFI Variables and other configuration data that is managed by the code measured into PCR 2. |
| 4 | Boot Loader (eg. GRUB), and boot attempts. If the first selected UEFI Boot Entry fails to load, that attempt is recorded, and so on until the UEFI BIOS is able to pass control successfully to a UEFI application (usually a boot loader), at which point the binary for that application is also measured into this PCR. |
| 5 | Boot Loader Configuration Data, and possibly (the specification lists these as optional) the UEFI boot entry path that was used, and the GPT/Partition Table data for the drive that the boot loader was loaded from. |
| 6 | Platform Specific (your computer manufacturer can use this for whatever they want). |
| 7 | Secure Boot Policy This includes all the secure boot variables, such as PK, KEK, db, and dbx values, as well as whether secure boot is on or off (why turning it off breaks bitlocker). Also recorded here is the db value(s) used to validate the Boot Loader Binary, as well as any other binaries loaded with UEFI LoadImage(). |
| 8-15 | Designated for use by the Operating System. For the purposes of this guide, it is useful to note that GRUB extends measurements of it's configuration into PCR 8 rather than PCR 5. It also extends your kernel image, initramfs, and any other loaded files into PCR 9. See this manual section for details. |
| 16 | Debug PCR. Note that this PCR can be reset manually without rebooting. |
| 17-22 | No usage defined. Reserved for future use. |
| 23 | Application Support. This PCR is also resettable, like PCR 16, and can be used by the OS for whatever purpose it might need it for. |
The free book "A Practical guide to TPM 2.0" linked to earlier explains this quite well:
A hierarchy can be thought of as having parent and child keys, or ancestors and descendants. All parent keys are storage keys, which are encryption keys that can wrap (encrypt) child keys. The storage key thus protects its children, offering secrecy and integrity when the child key is stored outside the secure hardware boundary of the TPM. These storage keys are restricted in their use. They can’t be used for general decryption, which could then leak the child’s secrets.
The ultimate parent at the top of the hierarchy is a primary key. Children can be storage keys, in which case they can also be parents. Children can also be non-storage keys, in which case they’re leaf keys: children but never parents.
The TPM 2.0 Specification defines three persistent hierarchies for different purposes: Endorsement, Platform, and Owner (sometimes referred to as "Storage") - plus a NULL hierarchy that is volatile. Each of these hierarchies is initialized with a large seed generated by the TPM that is never ever exposed outside the hardware. This seed is used to derive primary keys at the top of each hierarchy using a deterministic key derivation function that uses the seed plus a public template. Unless the seed is reset, the same template will always produce the same key, allowing for primary keys to be re-generated as needed. For this guide we will only be concerned with the Owner hierarchy, which is meant for end-users.
The main types of TPM Objects that this guide will deal with are primary keys, child keys, and sealing objects. Keys, like nearly all TPM entities, can have their access restricted in two main ways: Authorization Values (think passwords), and Policies. Policy based access control of TPM managed keys is how Bitlocker securely stores the disk encryption key and is able to retrieve it without having to ask for a password. It locks the disk encryption key with a policy that requires certain PCRs to have the same value during the current boot as they had when Bitlocker was enabled (which the user determined was a trusted boot configuration by turning on Bitlocker at that time.). In a similar manner, this guide will be storing a LUKS passphrase in the TPM locked with a policy based on PCR values. Policies are extremely powerful and can go far beyond matching PCR values, but you will have to read into that on your own. The only other policy feature we will be using is the so-called Wildcard Policy. This is a policy that is satisfied by another policy (that must also satisfied) that is signed by an authorization key. Policies are immutable once created, so this allows for a more flexible policy. This allows us to seal the LUKS key once, but still update the PCR values that it is sealed against, since we can pass an updated second policy to the TPM when we update the BIOS or the Bootloader, among others.
To interact with the TPM, there is a set of open source linux user-space tools originally developed by Intel that are available in the official Arch repositories called tpm2-tools. It is a collection of command line programs to interact with the TPM via the tpm2-tss library to talk to the TPM, as well as the optional but strongly recommended tpm2-abrmd for access and resource management. Your best resource for these tools are the manpages in the git repo (or you can use man <tool> but you have to know the name of the tool first). Anywhere you see a command line tool used in this guide that starts with tpm2_, you can find that tool in tpm2-tools
The version of tpm2-tools used to write this guide was 5.0, however note that the manpages link is for the master branch. These tools are under continuous development and they have been known to change quite significantly between major versions so take notice of which version you have, and select the appropriate release tag before reading any of the manpages.
The tpm2-tss library is an implementation of the TCG's "TPM Software Stack" as specified in the TPM2 Library Specification linked to previously. This is an open source implementation developed originally by Intel and Infineon along side tpm2-tools. There is also a "competing" software stack by IBM (also open source), however tpm2-tools are not compatible with it. The version of tpm2-tss used in this guide is 3.1.0
tpm2-abrmd is a user space TPM Access Broker and Resource Management Daemon. It does exactly what it says on the tin. While it is true that the tools/tss can just access the TPM directly (the kernel makes it available as /dev/tpm0), this daemon allows for multiple programs to use the TPM at the same time without colliding, among other helpful functions. It also provides extended session support when creating policies. The version used in this guide is 2.4.0.
The kernel has a built in resource manager at /dev/tpmrm0 but it is not as fully featured as the userspace one at this point in time.
Secure Boot is a UEFI system that prevents the execution of unsigned EFI binaries, such as OS bootloaders (GRUB). It does this by maintaining a certificate registry that each EFI binary's signature is checked against. If there is no match then it won't be executed, thereby providing some level of certainty that binaries running are "trusted" and establishing the start of a chain of trust that can extend all the way to the running operating system. That trust is unfortunately somewhat relative though. The reason for this is that nearly every computer in the world comes with Microsoft's Secure Boot keys pre-installed. These keys are controlled by Microsoft and used to sign Windows bootloaders as well as firmware for plugin cards such as graphics cards, but they have also been used to sign other EFI binaries such as one called shim which can effectively allow any other EFI binary to run without having to be signed by Microsoft (though this does require physical presence to install an alternate certificate that shim will use to verify signatures, making it a limited attack vector). It is also worth noting that shim is not malicious in nature, and was signed to allow Linux distributions to work with secure boot without users having to go through the process you will see below to install their own keys in the UEFI certificate registry. shim just has the unfortunate side effect of creating a security hole under certain threat models due to the way it works. Some newer versions have worked to address these issues though.
Now that we have covered secure boot, as well as the fundamentals of what a TMP is and how Bitlocker uses it, lets walk through what this guide will show you what the guide will setup at a high level.
The one sentence version:
The goal is to create a system that provides reasonable confidence that the computer is booting in a "trusted" configuration, and unlock the encrypted disk automatically using the TPM if that is the case.
This section was written after the guide was mostly complete, and while every effort was made to ensure it can be understood without reading the rest of the guide, this section barely scratches the surface, and the following sections provide lots of background information about everything used here.
We want to secure the boot process as much as possible from tampering. This goes beyond the UEFI feature called Secure Boot, which is only one link in the chain of trust. Secure Boot can only prevent binaries loaded directly with the EFI LoadImage() and StartImage() methods from running. In our case, this will be the GRand Unified Bootloader (GRUB), which then loads the Linux Kernel in it's own way without those methods. To continue the chain of trust, grub contains it's own method to verify the files it loads (including the kernel) with PGP signatures. It is possible to then have the linux kernel check for signatures on kernel modules it loads, but this third step is not something we will be doing here. All the modules (except those compiled into the kernel image or initramfs, which are already verified by GRUB) are stored on the encrypted disk which is considered to be trusted, and the integrity of all official arch packages are verified by PGP signature after they are downloaded.
The disk will be encrypted with LUKS, and unlocked automatically with a passphrase stored in the TPM that can only be unlocked if PCRs contain the expected values. The disk will not unlock if any of the PCR values are different, meaning that something in the boot sequence has changed, such as someone with physical access using shim to bypass secure boot, or replacing your kernel image with a malicious one. The TPM policy checks on the PCR values are separate from the checks done by secure boot and grub, meaning an attacker would have to bypass both systems to accomplish a boot time attack.
If you don't have a TPM you can still secure your boot process by following all of the other parts of this guide to take control of secure boot and make GRUB secure. You will have to enter a passphrase to unlock the disk at each boot without a TPM though.
Having the disk unlock automatically in the manner described so far is fairly secure, but it would also unlock for anyone who might pickup our machine if we were to lose it, or who otherwise has physical access to it. This leaves only our linux user password and other software access controls between such a person and our data. To mitigate this we can add another factor to the disk unlock. The signed TPM policies we will be creating can be stored on a USB drive that you keep with you. To unlock the disk automatically you'll need to have the usb drive connected to your machine. We will also be storing half of the authorization value needed to sign new TPM policies on this drive (and the other half inside the encrypted disk) so the drive will also be needed whenever the TPM policy needs to be refreshed, such as after a kernel or grub update.
As mentioned, the linux kernel will not be configured to require signed kernel modules, nor will the root user to be de-privileged with lockdown mode or any other linux hardening tricks. In fact, this guide only focuses on securing the boot process and securing the data on the disk at rest. Once the system has booted and the disk unlocked (the key for which is stored in kernel-only memory), the security of the system is left to the kernel, and the programs that run on it (eg. a tty login prompt or display manager, plus file system access controls, etc).
All digital security systems lie somewhere on a spectrum between complete paranoia and a complete lack of security. You have to decide where on the spectrum you want to fall. Ultimately, "transparent" or "hands off" security systems like the setup described here in this guide that automatically unlock your encrypted disk will likely never be as secure as more opaque alternatives (though they can come close). You sacrifice some security to convenience. This comes down to determining what your real threat model actually is, and then determining how secure you actually need your computer to be and what attack vectors you need to protect against. If you just used LUKS on it's own and typed in a passphrase at every boot it is very likely that would be more secure (assuming a very strong passphrase and a secured boot chain of trust), but it would certainly be less convenient to have to type in two different strong/long passwords just to get into your computer (the second being your linux user login).
Implementing sleep, suspend, or hibernate would be difficult to do securely with this setup and is not covered in any way. That said if you use a swapfile rather than a separate partition for swap this will keep the contents inside your encrypted disk. If you would rather use a partition, look into crypttab for a way to encrypt your swap but still mount it automatically.
This guide wasn't originally going to include Arch Installation steps, but it is easiest to set up disk encryption while doing a fresh install. Only steps that are not part of a typical install will be covered in detail. Everything else will be listed in brief only. See the Official Install Guide for details. Further, these steps will only install the bare minimum needed to boot Arch and do everything outlined in this guide.
If you already have a running Arch system you may need to do a backup and then re-install everything anyway, unless you can find a way to do an in-place conversion to LUKS. If you do, just check the list of packages to install below and make sure you aren't missing any, then skip ahead to the end of this section where we configure grub with a few extra modules and options.
See Pre Installation.
Stop at Partition the Disks and come back.
For the purposes of this guide, it is assumed you have already partitioned the drive under Windows.
Assumptions:
- Windows and Linux will reside on separate partitions on the same disk, with a shared EFI system partition.
- You have already installed Windows, and then used Windows disk manager to shrink
Cand create a new unformatted partition for Linux.- When installing windows, you probably want to make sure your EFI system partition is larger than the default of 100MB, as we will be putting our kernel image and other files in the EFI partition since the root partition will be encrypted. 500MB will give you lots of room, but 200MB is fine if disk space is limited. Check this superuser answer for instructions on how to create a larger EFI partition during Windows installation. You can probably do the same thing with a linux live disk before installing Windows too.
Installing Windows first is suggested as Windows is a lot pickier about drive layout and partition locations (and will happily bulldoze whatever it finds that isn't the way it wants if you aren't careful with the installer), but you are welcome to do it however you want. An example partition scheme after doing this might be the following:
- /dev/sda1 - MS Recovery
- /dev/sda2 - EFI
- /dev/sda3 - MS Reserved
- /dev/sda4 - Windows C
- /dev/sda5 - Arch Linux / - to be formatted below
We will be using this example partition map in the below commands. Make sure you modify them to suit your system.
The next step is to set up disk encryption for your Linux partition. This will not be true full disk encryption because we will only be encrypting the Linux partition, but since our windows partition is encrypted with BitLocker, nearly the whole drive ends up being encrypted, just with different keys. We will not be encrypting the efi system partition, instead relying on secure boot signing and PCR measurements to prevent tampering. If you want an encrypted efi partition that is beyond the scope of this guide, but there are guides available that can help with this.
For the purposes of this guide, we will only be encrypting a single partition, with the assumption that your entire Linux system is on that partition, rather than having separate partitions for directories like /home which aren't necessary in most single-user cases.
dm-crypt is a Linux kernel module that is part of the kernel device mapper framework. If you are familiar with LVM or software RAID, it uses the same base kernel functionality with the addition of encryption. dm-crypt supports multiple disk encryption methods and can even be stacked with LVM and/or RAID.
Here we will be using LUKS encryption of a single volume mapped to a single real disk partition. LUKS stands for Linux Unified Key Setup and is the de facto standard for disk encryption on Linux, providing a consistent transferable system across distributions. For more information on LUKS and how it works, there are some great explanations at the official project repository.
To help set everything up, we will use cryptsetup, which is the most commonly used cli for dm-crypt based disk encryption, as well as the reference implementation for LUKS. The version used to make this guide was 2.3.5
Assuming that your drive is already partitioned the way you want, the following command will format the given partition as a LUKS partition:
cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/sda5 --type luks2 --verify-passphrase --verbose --iter-time 10000luksFormattellscryptsetupto format the given device as a LUKS device./dev/sda5is the device to format as a LUKS device.--type luks2tells cryptsetup to use LUKS2 formatting.- LUKS2 has a different more extensible header format (and also a redundant header elsewhere on the drive to protect against corruption), however the primary reason for using it here is that it replaces the PBKDF2 key derivation of LUKS1 with Argon2 which is memory hardened against certain kinds of GPU based brute force attacks. You can learn more at the project FAQ section on LUKS2.
--verify-passphraserequires the passcode to unlock the LUKS partition to be entered twice, similar to other "confirm your password" mechanisms.--verboseenables verbose mode.--iter-time 10000this manually sets the keyslot iteration time to 10 seconds.- A keyslot iteration time of 10 seconds means that it will take 10 seconds (based on the speed of your current cpu) to unlock the drive using the passphrase. This is to compensate for a possibly weak passphrase and make it costly for an attacker to brute-force or dictionary attack it because it requires 10 seconds per attempt. The LUKS default is 2 seconds, in order to balance security and convenience. If you are confident in your passphrase you can choose to omit this and use the default (or set it to another value of your choice). For the configuration shown in this guide, the passphrase set here is considered a backup or fallback, and will not be used very often; thus making the 10 second wait time a nice feature that won't typically add to your boot time. Later we will be setting another passphrase that keeps the default 2 seconds, and is sealed into the TPM for automated unlocking on boot. Under most circumstances this second passphrase is the one that will be used, and it will be a randomly generated to ensure it has enough entropy that it would be impractical to brute force.
There are a number of other options available surrounding how keys are generated, among other things, but in general the defaults will be more than enough for you unless you are using an older/less powerful computer or have specific requirements such as using something stronger than AES128 (With a key size of 256 bits, aes in xts mode works out to AES128, as xts operates on a pair of keys).
cryptsetup --help outputs the defaults that were compiled into your version of the tool.
Mine for LUKS are:
cipher: aes-xts-plain64, key size: 256 bits, passphrase hashing: sha256, RNG: /dev/urandom.
Do your own reading to determine which other settings you might want. The cryptsetup FAQ and manpage contain a wealth of information.
After formatting the partition, we want to open it so that we can create the filesystem and mount it for writing. To open our encrypted LUKS partition, we use the following command:
cryptsetup open /dev/sda5 cryptrootopentellscryptsetupwe want to open a LUKS device./dev/sda5is the LUKS device we want to open.cryptrootis the name we want to map the LUKS device to.- This can be any name you want. It will be made available at
/dev/mapper/cryptroot(or whatever name you gave it).
- This can be any name you want. It will be made available at
Running the command as above will prompt you for your passphrase, after which the LUKS device will be mapped as specified.
This part happens exactly like it would for a regular partition, except you are pointing at a different device in /dev
mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/cryptroot
mount /dev/mapper/cryptroot /mntAt this point you may want to quickly verify that everything is working by unmounting, closing the LUKS device, and re-open and mount it:
umount /mnt
cryptsetup close cryptroot
cryptsetup open /dev/sda5 cryptroot
mount /dev/mapper/cryptroot /mntBefore you go putting your important data on your encrypted LUKS partition, you may want to backup the header. The header contains all the information needed to decrypt the drive (though that info cannot be accessed without your passphrase). If you do not create a backup, and your header gets corrupted, you may permanently loose all your data! To write the LUKS header to a file, use the following command:
cryptsetup luksHeaderBackup /dev/sda5 --header-backup-file my_luks_headerThis command does exactly what it says it does, so an explanation of the arguments is probably not needed here. Just make sure you put this file safe on another drive somewhere.
See the cryptsetup manpage for relevant warnings about header backups. In brief, there are none unless you change your passphrase. If you do, you have to make a new backup, or separately edit the backup, as someone with the backed up header could unlock your partition with the old passphrase otherwise. Remember, the header cannot decrypt anything without knowledge of the passphrase(s) contained in it.
For more information on backups, see the cryptsetup FAQ, section 6
At this point we have created an encrypted LUKS volume and mounted it to /mnt, so now we want to install a basic Arch Linux system on it.
For a basic mirror list of only Canadian https mirrors, do this:
curl -L "https://www.archlinux.org/mirrorlist?country=CA&protocol=https&ip_version=4&use_mirror_status=on" > /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlistYou will then have to open the file and remove the # from each mirror to activate it. Don't worry, there's only a few in Canada. Adjust as needed for your geographic location on this page.
Mount your efi partition at /mnt/efi. You will have to create that directory first.
For this guide, the future system's /boot directory will be bind mounted at /efi/EFI/arch (this also needs to be created first).
This setup is found in this wiki section:
How to bind mount:
mount --bind /mnt/efi/EFI/arch /mnt/bootRun this command to install all the basic packages you will need for this guide (plus one or two useful utilities that you will probably just install later anyway):
pacstrap /mnt base linux linux-firmware vim sudo patch man-db man-pages texinfo openssl cryptsetup efitools sbsigntools grub efibootmgr tpm2-tools tpm2-abrmdIf you prefer the packages listed on separate lines, here they are, in no particular order:
base
linux
linux-firmware
vim
sudo
patch
man-db
man-pages
texinfo
openssl
cryptsetup
efitools
sbsigntools
grub
efibootmgr
tpm2-tools
tpm2-abrmd
This package set will get you booting and doing everything in this guide, but not a whole lot else. If you know what other packages you want, install them now (in particular, make sure you install something to allow you connect to a network such as dhcpd for basic ethernet connections or you'll have to boot the live disk again just to install more packages later!)
We can generate our fstab for the new system as show in the installation guide:
genfstab -U /mnt > /mnt/etc/fstabDouble check the resulting file and make sure there are no references to /mnt or any other errors.
At this point we will chroot into the new system.
arch-chroot /mntFrom this point on, it is assumed you are inside the chroot, and file paths will be written accordingly!
See Timezone, Localization, and Network
Don't forget to set your root password! Make sure it's a good one!
We won't cover creating any users here as it's not needed for a barebones bootable system. Technically the root password isn't either, but if you forget that leaves your system wide open.
Just call passwd to set it, since you are already the root user.
We installed and started this daemon on the live disk way back at the beginning of the guide. Enabling it now inside the chroot means systemd will automatically start it when we boot into our new system later.
systemctl enable tpm2-abrmdFor this system we are using grub because it has TPM support that we will need later and otherwise provides a nice menu to work with (if you don't need grub's menu then read up on EFISTUB as it could be a simpler and potentially more secure option). For now we will install grub manually, but later we will setup a pacman hook to do it automatically whenever it gets updated.
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/efi --bootloader-id=GRUB --modules=tpmThis installs grub in your efi partition, with the tpm module packaged into the core binary. It also creates an efi boot entry for "GRUB", which is also moved to the top of your boot order.
In order to boot with an encrypted disk, we need to make sure there is a way to enter the passphrase at boot to unlock the disk. This will be securely automated over the following sections so that manual entry is not required, but for now we will setup a manual process so you don't get stuck unable to boot without a live disk.
To do this we can add a simple passphrase prompt to our early boot system with an initramfs hook called encrypt. Edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf and add encrypt to HOOKS anywhere after keyboard.
Eg: HOOKS=(base udev autodetect keyboard modconf block filesystems encrypt fsck)
Once you have done that, you'll also need to add a kernel command line argument to your grub configuration to tell encrypt where to find your encrypted disk, the documentation for which is found here.
Edit /etc/default/grub to include the tpm module at the beginning of the GRUB_PRELOAD_MODULES setting (this is not required for the encrypt hook, but something we need anyway), and then add cryptdevice=PARTUUID=some-uuid-here:cryptroot to GRUB_COMMANDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT where some-uuid-here is the partition UUID of your root partition (/dev/sda5 in our example) as reported by blkid, and cryptroot matches where you mounted the LUKS partition above. Make sure that you use the PARTUUID here.
Once this is done, generate the config file:
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfgThis creates a grub config file that grub will read when it loads at boot. This includes your menu entries (ones for Arch are auto-generated). See this page for details.
Finally, regenerate your initramfs to include the encrypt hook that we added to the config.
mkinitcpio -p linuxDon't worry about what all this means for now. Initramfs and hooks will be covered in detail later! For now, you should make sure the system is bootable on it's own by shutting down, removing the live disk and attempting to boot. If it doesn't work, you'll need to review the steps above and troubleshoot. If you want to know more about the initramfs and hooks, check out the beginning portion of the "Automating Everything" section.
Before going any further, reboot into your new arch installation (in case you missed this in the last paragraph).
These are just a few items to note or prepare before diving into the meat of this guide.
As mentioned earlier, we will be using a USB flash drive as a second factor required to unlock the disk. This will be done by storing files needed to successfully retrieve the LUKS passphrase from the TPM on the drive, as well as half the key needed to authorize new policies. The files will be created in the next section and are useless without the specific TPM that created them so there is no harm storing them on an unencrypted partition. The amount of space required is so small it is recommended that you make a small FAT32 partition on the drive for this purpose and leave the rest for other uses (such as a LUKS encrypted partition for storing private keys). It could be as small as 32MiB, which is the minimum for FAT32 assuming 512 byte sectors (not that is has to be FAT32. If you use something like ext4 it will prevent windows from auto-mounting the partition, just don't click "ok" when it says you need to format!). For the purposes of this guide it will be assumed that this drive is mounted at /mnt for simplicity, but feel free to mount it wherever you like. The scripts we setup later will look for it by the partition UUID and mount it themselves to make sure it can always be found (as long as it is plugged in at the time).
Throughout the next couple section we will be generating a number of private keys and other sensitive data. It's a good idea to use a ramfs when generating keys, as data written to the disk is not necessarily wiped immediately (especially if you are using an SSD), leaving it open to data recovery. Maybe that's just being too paranoid. Up to you. To mount a ramfs, do the following:
mount -t ramfs -o 100m ramfs /path/to/your/chosen/mountpointYou want to use ramfs rather than tmpfs because tmpfs can be swapped to the disk, while ramfs cannot. Further details on this are left to for you to research.
The following sections assume this ramfs as your shell working directory and will not be cleaning up sensitive files generated by various commands assuming that they will all get wiped when the ramfs is unmounted.
While many of the commands here can be run without root permissions, we will be copying files into root controlled folders and in some cases accessing them from there too. Any commands that do this will need to run as root. If you created a non-root user when you installed Arch, you may want to complete this guide from a root shell (su root), rather than having to use sudo all the time.
In this section we will securely store a LUKS passphrase in the TPM so that we can use it later to automatically unlock our disk. The setup described here only has to happen once, and in the next section we will be automating the maintenance of everything.
Please note that all file extensions used in this section with tpm2_* commands (eg. *.policy) are purely for readability. The tools do not expect any kind of extension.
That said, any files that are saved for later use should retain their names as used here. The install and boot hooks we will be adding expect those files to have the names used here (though some can be configured to use alternate names without code changes via kernel command line arguments, as we'll see later).
A primary key is required to create any other type of key or TPM object. If those objects are stored outside the TPM the primary key is used to wrap or encrypt them. For our use case here we will be persisting all of the TPM objects that we need inside the TPM. Persisted objects are encrypted by the TPM internally such that the primary key is not required to use them, so we will not be persisting the primary key. That being said, we want to make our primary key unique so that it can't just be regenerated by someone else choosing the same options such as algorithm and key size (which form part of the primary key template). We will do this by setting an authorization value on the key when we create it. This value is included in the key derivation function input, making the key unique and also preventing it from being used without this value when it is loaded into the TPM. We will not persist our primary key as it is not needed after we create and persist the other TPM objects that we need, but it is recommended that you securely the store the authorization value in case you ever need to regenerate the primary key created here.
A simple way to generate this value is to just pull some random bytes from /dev/random with a tool like dd:
dd if=/dev/random of=primary-key-authorization.bin bs=32 count=1This will generate 32 random bytes and write them to a file.
Do not miss count=1 or it will keep pulling 32 byte chunks of data from /dev/random continuously.
tpm2_creatprimary --key-auth file:primary-key-authorization.bin --key-context primary-key.context--key-auth file:primary-key-authorization.binpasses in the authorization value that we just generated.- Note the
file:prefix. This is needed whenever a key is specified in a file to atpm2_*command. See this manpage.
- Note the
--key-context primary-key.contextsaves the key's context to a file for reference later.- Since we are using the
tpm2-abrmdresource manager, our key is flushed from the TPM memory at the end of each command, but can be restored as needed using this file in subsequent commands (but only during this boot). If we were not using a resource manager but accessing the TPM directly the key would remain in the TPM's memory (which is quite limited) until explicitly flushed, or at power down.
- Since we are using the
There are many more options for this command, but in this case we are sticking to the defaults as they are plenty secure and the most compatible. They will be listed below without much additional detail (see the manpage for details).
- Hierarchy: Owner
- Algorithm:
rsa2048:null:aes128cfb- Many TPMs won't offer much better than this as the spec doesn't require it. Depending on which version of the spec your TPM conforms to, it may also have
aes256but it is recommended to use algorithms with matching key strengths (rsa2048's 112 bits considered close enough toaes128's 128 bits.rsa3072's 128 bits would be a better match but most TPMs do not support it).rsa16384would be required for a 256 bit key strength to matchaes256. You can check which algorithms your tpm supports using the tpm2_testparms command.
- Many TPMs won't offer much better than this as the spec doesn't require it. Depending on which version of the spec your TPM conforms to, it may also have
- Hash Algorithm:
sha256 - Attributes:
restricted|decrypt|fixedtpm|fixedparent|sensitivedataorigin|userwithauth|noda - Authorization Policy: null, which means it can never be satisfied.
All Hierarchies have authorization values and/or policies that allow the generation of keys with their seeds, among other things, but these are typically not set for the Owner Hierarchy to allow it's use by multiple programs and users. If you lock it down, it is unlikely that bitlocker will be functional as it probably also uses the Owner Hierarchy (this was not tested, but is how the TPM specification expects the TPM to be used). The Endorsement Hierarchy is not used for this guide and will not be covered. The Platform Hierarchy's authorization is cleared on every boot, and it is expected that the BIOS or some other low-level firmware sets this early in the boot process, which means that the end user typically doesn't have access to the Platform Hierarchy.
In addition to the hierarchy authorizations, the TPM also has a Dictionary Attack (DA) Lockout mechanism that prevents dictionary attacks on the authorization values for primary keys and their children. Note that this mechanism does NOT protect hierarchy authorization values. The DA lockout also has an authorization value and/or policy that can be used to reset the lockout, as well as authorize a few other administrative commands, including the tpm2_clear command, which will clear all objects from the TPM and reset the hierarchy seeds (meaning we would have to re-do everything in this section). This command can be run with either the Platform Hierarchy authorization (typically through a BIOS setup menu option) or the DA Lockout authorization. Since we have no control over the Platform Hierarchy, it is the DA Lockout authorization that we need to worry about. Setting an authorization value on the DA lockout should prevent tpm2_clear from being run by anyone else (such as windows), and should also prevent the lockout from being reset, both of which are important for security.
As of this writing it has not been verified if windows can somehow get around this and clear the tpm, but this should not be possible according to the spec unless it is able to communicate with the BIOS and use the platform authorization. Either way, setting this value is a good idea anyway and doesn't take long.
This key should be stored securely, just as with the authorization value for the Primary key.
dd if=/dev/random of=dictionary-attack-lockout-authorization.bin bs=32 count=1tpm2_changeauth --object-context lockout file:dictionary-attack-lockout-authorization.bin--object-context lockoutidentifies the DA Lockout mechanism as the one to change the authorization on.file:dictionary-attack-lockout-authorization.binspecifies the authorization value that should be set.
It is also possible to set a policy in addition to the authorization value using tpm2_setprimarypolicy, however this is not done here for simplicity. For any TPM object, the default authorization value is empty string, which allows anyone in, but the default policy is null, which can never be satisfied. Therefore it is critical to at least set the authorization value, but not necessarily the policy.
WARNING
Do not loose this authorization value!!
If you loose it, you will have no way to reset it aside from the Platform Hierarchy Authorization. This typically means going into your BIOS config and finding an option to reset the TPM, which will usually run a tpm2_clear with the Platform Authorization and erase everything in your TPM.
Next we need to create a new LUKS passphrase to use with the TPM. If you set the iteration time on your previous passphrase to 10 seconds, this is where we will make sure your "normal" boot times are of a reasonable length by using a high entropy passphrase with the default 2 second iteration time (or you could even make it less than 2 seconds if you are confident enough in your randomly generated passphrase).
Again we can use the /dev/random to generate a random key:
dd if=/dev/random of=tpm-luks-passphrase.bin bs=32 count=1And then we can use cryptsetup to add the key to the LUKS header:
cryptsetup luksAddKey /dev/sda5 tpm-luks-passphrase.binluksAddKeytellscryptsetupwe want to add a new passphrase./dev/sda5specifies our LUKS device.tpm-luks-passphrase.binspecifies the new passphrase we want to add.
This command will prompt you for your previous passphrase before adding the new key in keyslot 1 (A LUKS2 device can have up to 32 passphrases numbered starting with 0).
Before we seal this new passphrase into a TPM object under our primary key, we need to create a policy to seal it with, so that it can only be accessed if the policy is satisfied. Normally such a policy would involve the values of PCRs that are known to contain measurements of a trusted boot configuration (such as the new arch install we just created), however PCR values are inherently brittle. Whenever you update your bootloader, kernel, BIOS or other values that get measured, the PCR values will change. We would then have to re-seal the passphrase because an object's policy is immutable after it is created. To mitigate this issue, there is a special kind of policy that we can seal our passphrase with that is colloquially referred to as a "wildcard policy". This is a policy that can only be satisfied by another policy that has been signed by an authorization key (and that signed policy must also be satisfied however it requires). This second policy is passed in at the time the object with the wildcard policy is to be used (when our passphrase is to be unsealed and used to unlock the disk).
In order to create a wildcard policy, we need an authorization key that will be used to sign the secondary policy that is used to satisfy it. This authorization key will be persisted in the TPM under our primary key so that it is never stored in the clear on the disk. The authorization key will only be able to sign new policies with an authorization value (similar to the primary key authorization). Half of the authorization value will be stored on our encrypted disk, and the other half on our USB drive. By doing this, the disk must already be unlocked and the external USB drive mounted in order to access the authorization key to sign a new policy.
To be clear here, we aren't splitting the key itself into two parts, but the "password" needed to use the key that is stored only in the physical TPM on the machine in question. You need both the specific TPM and the full "password" to do anything with the key.
To better differentiate terminology, the authorization value for our policy authorization key will be referred to as an access value from here on.
Similar to previously, the access value will be pulled from /dev/random
dd if=/dev/random of=policy-authorization-access.bin bs=64 count=1Note we doubled the number of bytes to 64 here, as we will be splitting this value in half, and we want to ensure it is just as difficult to guess half the value (assuming someone has obtained the other half somehow) as it was to guess the whole values that we generated before for things like the DA Lockout
Next we will convert the access key to hexadecimal to make it more shell-safe, and split it into two parts:
(if a binary file is accidentally printed to the shell it could include non-printing characters that break some shells)
xxd -p -c 256 policy-authorization-access.bin > policy-authorization-access.hex
split -n 2 policy-authorization-access.hex policy-authorization-accessThis will produce two files named policy-authorization-accessaa and policy-authorization-accessab that each contain 256bits of the 512bit access key in hexadecimal string format.
Then we will copy half of the access key to a restricted folder in /root and make it read-only:
mkdir -m 600 /root/bootkeys
cp policy-authorization-accessab /root/bootkeys/policy-authorization-accessab
chmod 400 /root/bootkeys/policy-authorization-accessabIt is important that this half in /root/bootkeys is the ab, or second half, as this is what the scripts later expect. They also expect it to have this exact filename.
The file cannot be written to prevent accidental overwrite. The root user can explicitly change the permission if needed so this isn't an issue. The folder is not read-only so that we can add more files to it later.
The other half of the key will be copied to the special partition on the USB drive we setup earlier (assumed here to be presently mounted at /mnt):
mkdir /mnt/$(cryptsetup luksUUID /dev/sda5)
cp policy-authorization-accessaa /mnt/$(cryptsetup luksUUID /dev/sda5)/policy-authorization-accessaaThe idea here is to create a directory on the USB drive to store the files for this computer so they are separated from similar files for another computer you might have. Later our scripts will be able to identify the correct directory by running a similar command to get the UUID of the luks container. If you only intend to use this USB drive with one computer you can just put things at the root of the partition as the scripts will fall back to this location if it can't find a folder named with the UUID.
We will create this key in the TPM and restrict it's access with the key we just created:
tpm2_create --parent-context primary-key.context --parent-auth file:primary-key-authorization.bin --key-auth hex:0x$(cat policy-authorization-accessaa policy-authorization-accessab) --key-algorithm rsa2048:rsapss-sha256:null --attributes "fixedtpm|fixedparent|sensitivedataorigin|userwithauth|sign" --key-context policy-authorization-key.context--parent-context primary-key.contextencrypts the key under the primary key created previously.--parent-auth file:primary-key-authorization.binprovides the primary key authorization value so that we can use it to encrypt the new key.--key-auth hex:$(cat policy-authorization-accessaa policy-authorization-accessab)sets the authorization value for the new key.- Since this value is now in hexadecimal, and split into two files, we need to concatenate the two files with a shell substitution and pass the result as a hex value by prefixing
hex:to it. See this manpage for details on passing auth values as hexadecimal.
(Yes you could just use the original file right now, but this shows you how it will be done later)
- Since this value is now in hexadecimal, and split into two files, we need to concatenate the two files with a shell substitution and pass the result as a hex value by prefixing
--key-algorithm rsa2048:rsapss-sha256:nullsets the key algorithm.- This argument specifically sets it to be an
rsa2048key with a signing scheme ofrsapss(RSASSA-PSS) usingsha256as the hash algorithm, as well as a null symmetric algorithm since this key can't be used for encryption anyway. See this manpage.
- This argument specifically sets it to be an
--attributes "fixedtpm|fixedparent|sensitivedataorigin|userwithauth|sign"sets the TPM object attributes for the key.- See this manpage for details, and note that the attributes here restrict this key to only be a signing key, and to only be accessible with the auth-key value provided, among a few other things.
--key-context policy-authorization-key.contextsaves the key's context to a file for reference later.- just like with the primary key.
Unlike the primary key, most of the options that have defaults have been specified here in order to create this key just for signing our policies. The only option not specified is the hash algorithm, which is sha256 by default and is not to be confused with the hash algorithm specified as part of the signing scheme above. This is used for a different purpose.
Some TPMs don't support all commands. If you get an error here about the Esys_CreateLoaded command not being supported you will have to remove the --key-context option from tpm2_create, and add:
--public policy-authorization-key.public --private policy-authorization-key.privateThese options save the public and private portions of the key (encrypted with your primary key) to files.
Then you will have to load the created key into the TPM memory with a separate command to get the key-context:
tpm2_load --parent-context primary-key.context --auth file:primary-key-authorization.bin --public policy-authorization-key.public --private policy-authorization-key.private --key-context policy-authorization-key.contextThe options given to this command are fairly self explanatory given what we have covered so far.
We will be using the policy authorization key every time we unseal the disk (to verify the signature on the signed policy), so it is easiest to store it permanently in the TPM. To do this, we use the tpm2_evictcontrol tool. It is not clear why the tool is called that beyond the tool's name matching the internal TPM command's name. Possibly this is a reference to the TPM taking control of the object when you persist it, and "evicting" it from the NVRAM when you remove it (the same command does both).
tpm2_evictcontrol --object-context policy-authorization-key.context --output policy-authorization-key.handle--object-context policy-authorization-key.contextspecifies the object that should be permanently stored in the TPM.--output policy-authorization-key.handlesaves the internal handle (NVRAM address) where the object was stored to a file that can later be used to reference that object, like a context file except it works across boots.- You can also use a raw NVRAM address in hex format (e.g. 0x8000004) but the handle file includes some other data that allows the TPM to verify that the key you are looking for is actually the one stored at the address specified.
Since the key will be needed at boot before unlocking the disk, we copy the handle file to /mnt/your-luks-container-uuid (recall we are assuming your second factor USB flash drive is mounted at /mnt).
cp policy-authorization-key.handle /mnt/your-luks-container-uuid/policy-authorization-key.handleWe will also copy a backup of the handle file to /root/bootkeys and restrict it's access as we did with the half of the access key.
cp policy-authorization-key.handle /root/bootkeys/policy-authorization-key.handle
chmod 400 /root/bootkeys/policy-authorization-key.handleStoring the handle file in the clear on the USB flash drive is not a security issue as it simply refers to the key's location in this TPM's NVRAM. It does not provide access to the private area of the key (and the public area is always available anyway, if you have access to the TPM it is in, through tpm2_nvreadpublic and tpm2_readpublic).
The name of the authorization key (which is a digest that uniquely identifies the key in the TPM even if it is moved to a different NVRAM location) is needed to create the wildcard policy. You may have seen this printed to the console earlier when you created and loaded the key.
tpm2_readpublic --object-context policy-authorization-key.handle --name policy-authorization-key.name--object-context policy-authorization-key.handlespecifies the TPM object to read the public area of.--name policy-authorization-key.namesaves the name portion of the public area to a file.
As with the handle, we will need this name at boot before unlocking the disk, so we copy it to the USB flash drive:
cp policy-authorization-key.name /mnt/your-luks-container-uuid/policy-authorization-key.nameWe will also copy a backup of the name file to /root/bootkeys and restrict it's access.
cp policy-authorization-key.name /root/bootkeys/policy-authorization-key.name
chmod 400 /root/bootkeys/policy-authorization-key.nameFinally, we can create the wildcard policy! Start by opening a trial authorization session. A trial session is a session that can be used to create a policy for later use, but not to authorize access to anything.
tpm2_startauthsession --hash-algorithm sha256 --session seal-wildcard-policy.session--hash-algorithm sha256specifies the hash algorithm to use for the session (all auth sessions are variations of HMAC sessions).--session seal-wildcard-policy.sessionspecifies the file to save the session to so it can be used in subsequent commands.
This tool starts a trial session by default. --policy-session is required to start a real session.
Now create the policy:
tpm2_policyauthorize --session seal-wildcard-policy.session --name policy-authorization-key.name --policy seal-wildcard-policy.policy--session seal-wildcard-policy.sessionspecifies the trial session just created.--name policy-authorization-key.namespecifies the name of the authorization key that will be used to sign policies that can satisfy this policy.--policy seal-wildcard-policy.policysaves the policy to a file so that it can be used during object creation later.
Finally, flush the trial session from TPM memory:
tpm2_flushcontext seal-wildcard-policy.sessionThis last step is not really necessary because we will be rebooting very soon, but is good practice.
Now that we have made a policy, we can seal the LUKS passphrase we created into a persistent TPM object that is only accessible with that policy.
tpm2_create --parent-context primary-key.context --parent-auth file:primary-key-authorization.bin --attributes "fixedtpm|fixedparent|adminwithpolicy" --sealing-input tpm-luks-passphrase.bin --policy seal-wildcard-policy.policy --key-context sealed-passphrase.contextThis is almost identical to how the Policy Authorization Key was created, so only differences differences will be listed, along with some defaults that are being used:
--attributes "fixedtpm|fixedparent|adminwithpolicy"- The final attribute here ensures the sealed object can only be unsealed with a policy.
--sealing-input tpm-luks-passphrase.binpasses the previously created LUKS passphrase as the data to be sealed in the object.--policy seal-wildcard-policy.policysets the policy of the sealed object to the wildcard policy created previously.- Default Key Algorithm:
hmac(sealed data can only be a keyed hash). - Default Hash Algorithm: sha256
If you encountered an error with tpm2_create previously, repeat the same steps here to create the key and then load it into the TPM in a separate command.
As with the Policy Authorization Key, this sealing object will be used at every boot, so we will store it permanently in the TPM. This process is basically identical to the above with the Policy Authorization Key so only the commands will be listed:
tpm2_evictcontrol --object-context sealed-passphrase.context --output sealed-passphrase.handle
cp sealed-passphrase.handle /mnt/your-luks-container-uuid/sealed-passphrase.handle
cp sealed-passphrase.handle /root/bootkeys/sealed-passphrase.handle
chmod 400 /root/bootkeys/sealed-passphrase.handleAt this point we have sealed the LUKS passphrase in a TPM object that is restricted with a policy that must be satisfied by another policy that is signed with a key. In order to satisfy this policy, we must create a second policy and sign it. The second policy will be created such that it is satisfied only if the values of certain PCRs are the same as when the policy was created. However, since we are about to make a bunch of changes to the boot process, the current values in the PCRs are not the ones that will be found on our final Arch system. There are a few that can be expected not to change in this case, such as PCR 0, which is the BIOS code, but creating a signed policy that is satisfied by only a few PCR values leaves our sealed LUKS passphrase vulnerable if anyone ever got ahold of that policy and the signature.
Since we will need this policy at boot to unseal the LUKS passphrase, we will store it on the USB flash drive, just as we did with the handles for the two objects we saved in the TPM. The policy file just contains a digest of each component of data that went into creating it (PCR values in this case) so storing it on the unencrypted flash drive is harmless so long as the policy requires a robust set of PCR values. In addition, it is useless unless paired with this specific TPM so storing them separately adds to the overall security. To use the policy the user (or the automated script we will be using later) must know the 'recipe' and re-create the policy digest inside a real authorization session by adding the values of the same that went into the original, after which the TPM will compare the two digests. The policy is satisfied if they match. Normally a policy is stored as part of the TPM object, however this one is stored in a file because it will be used to satisfy the wildcard policy that is stored in the TPM object. Since the policy is accompanied by a signature from the authorization key, nobody can tamper with it without causing the signature to fail verification. However if the policy is weak (such as by only requiring a couple PCR values), then there is no need for tampering since it will be easy to satisfy while making malicious changes to other parts of the boot configuration.
To mitigate this vulnerability while also maintaining convenience, we can create a temporary policy that will only work on the next boot, and never again afterward. This is possible because the TPM has an internal 32-bit counter that is incremented on every boot, never decremented, and can't be reset without running tpm2_clear which requires authorization and would also clear our sealed key from the TPM (see previous section about the Dictionary Attack Lockout Authorization). We can create a policy that includes a requirement that the value of the boot counter be exactly one plus the current value such that it can only be satisfied on the next boot (in addition to a couple PCR values that we do not expect to change under most circumstances, like PCR 0).
This strategy will also be used whenever we install an update for the kernel or the boot loader, though it will be done automatically in install hooks that we will setup later. Whenever we boot, a script (also to be setup later) will look first for a "more secure" policy that works, and failing that (such as when we install a kernel update), it will look for a temporary policy as described above. If this temporary policy is satisfied then it will automatically create a new "more secure" policy with the new PCR values that incorporate the updated kernel (once it unlocks the disk with the temporary policy and gains access to the second half of the policy authorization key's access value). We can take advantage of this automated policy creation in our initial setup too, by manually creating a temporary policy now and then letting the boot script automatically create the "more secure" policy when we reboot into our final arch system for the first time.
With all of the above said, lets create the temporary policy.
Begin by starting a trial auth session, just like when creating the wildcard policy:
tpm2_startauthsession --hash-algorithm sha256 --session temporary-authorized-policy.sessionAdd the PCR values that we know will not change to the policy:
tpm2_policypcr --pcr-list sha256:0,1,2,3,7 --session temporary-authorized-policy.session--pcr-list sha256:0,1,2,3,7specifies the use of PCRs 0-3 and 7 from the sha256 bank.- Many TPMs support multiple banks of PCRs that use different algorithms. At minimum there is usually sha1 and sha256. To check what your TPM has allocated, run
tpm2_pcrread. - If your TPM only has sha1, adjust this option accordingly. The boot script will use sha256 by default but an alternative can be specified on the kernel command line.
- Many TPMs support multiple banks of PCRs that use different algorithms. At minimum there is usually sha1 and sha256. To check what your TPM has allocated, run
--session temporary-authorized-policy.sessionspecifies the trial session we just created.
Add the boot counter + 1 requirement using some sed magic to get the current boot counter:
tpm2_policycountertimer --session temporary-authorized-policy.session --policy temporary-authorized-policy.policy --eq resets=$(($(tpm2_readclock | sed -En "s/[[:space:]]*reset_count: ([0-9]+)/\1/p") + 1))--session temporary-authorized-policy.sessionspecifies the trial session we just created.--policy temporary-authorized-policy.policyspecifies the file where the final policy should be saved.--eqspecifies an equality comparison.resets=<see above>specifies that the comparison should be done with the restarts counter and the value it should be compared with.- Note that the
=here has nothing to do with the type of comparison to be done, which just happens to be equality in this case. - The shell expansion is trimmed here for readability, but it basically uses
tpm2_readclockto get the currentreset_countand adds one. For example, if the currentreset_countis 156, then this argument would boil down toresets=157
- Note that the
After creating the policy, we flush the session from the TPM memory:
tpm2_flushcontext temporary-authorized-policy.sessionIn order for the wildcard policy to accept this new policy, it must be signed by the key we created. To do this, we can use the tpm2_sign command:
tpm2_sign --key-context policy-authorization-key.handle --auth hex:$(cat policy-authorization-accessaa policy-authorization-accessab) --hash-algorithm sha256 --scheme rsapss --signature temporary-authorized-policy.signature temporary-authorized-policy.policy--key-context policy-authorization-key.handlespecifies the key that we want to sign with.--auth hex:$(cat policy-authorization-accessaa policy-authorization-accessab)specifies the authorization value needed to access the key, just as we did when we created it.--hash-algorithm sha256specifies the hash algorithm to be used for the message digest.--scheme rsapssspecifies the signing scheme to use.- This tool is supposed to be able to auto-detect this from the key you are using but there appears to be a bug with that at the time of writing, so just specify it.
--signature temporary-authorized-policy.signaturespecifies the file to save the signature in.temporary-authorized-policy.policyspecifies the value to be signed.
We will need these files to unlock the drive at boot, so they are copied to the USB flash drive.
cp temporary-authorized-policy.policy /mnt/your-luks-container-uuid/temporary-authorized-policy.policy
cp temporary-authorized-policy.signature /mnt/your-luks-container-uuid/temporary-authorized-policy.signatureThere is no need to save these files elsewhere since they won't work again.
Now that we have our second LUKS passphrase sealed into the TMP, we should test and make sure everything is working so far. To do this, we can make a simple policy to unseal the passphrase with. This policy will be like he temporary one above, except without the boot counter requirement, so please make sure it is NOT persisted anywhere as this could compromise the whole setup (the assumption is you are still working in the ramfs we have been using thus far and so it will be cleared when it is unmounted).
All these commands have been covered above, so they will just be listed here:
tpm2_startauthsession --hash-algorithm sha256 --session test-authorized-policy.session
tpm2_policypcr --pcr-list sha256:0,1,2,3,7 --session test-authorized-policy.session --policy test-authorized-policy.policy
tpm2_flushcontext test-authorized-policy.session
tpm2_sign --key-context policy-authorization-key.handle --auth file:policy-authorization-access.bin --hash-algorithm sha256 --scheme rsapss --signature test-authorized-policy.signature test-authorized-policy.policyHere we will use the policy we just created to unseal the passphrase we sealed into the TMP, and then have cryptsetup verify that it is a valid passphrase for our disk. First, we need to verify the signature we just created, and produce a validation ticket.
tpm2_verifysignature --key-context policy-authorization-key.handle --hash-algorithm sha256 --message test-authorized-policy.policy --signature test-authorized-policy.signature --ticket test-authorized-policy.tkt--key-context policy-authorization-key.handlespecifies the key in the TMP that was used to sign the message being verified.--hash-algorithm sha256specifies the hash algorithm used when signing. This must match what was used when tpm2_sign was called.--message test-authorized-policy.policyspecifies the "message" or file that was signed.--signature test-authorized-policy.signaturespecifies the signature of the message that should be checked.--ticket authorized-policy.tktspecifies the file to output the verification ticket to.- This ticket is passed to subsequent commands to confirm the validity of the file being passed to them (in this case the policy).
Next we need to create a real auth session that can be used for authentication with the TMP.
tpm2_startauthsession --hash-algorithm sha256 --policy-session --session test-authorization.session--policy-session specifies that this session should be a real auth session that can be used for authentication with the TPM.
Other options here have already been covered above.
Next we have to re-create the policy in this real session. This is how the TMP verifies policies — by comparing the policy hash in the real auth session with the one embedded in the TMP object (which in this case is the wildcard policy). With wildcard policies, tpm2_policyauthorize is used to compare the hash in the session with the one in the external policy file (that has been verified with tpm2_verifysignature to be signed with the key that the wildcard policy allows). If the verified external policy's hash matches the one in the session, the hash in the session is replaced with the hash of the wildcard policy, thus allowing this session to unseal our passphrase.
tpm2_policypcr --pcr-list sha256:0,1,2,3,7 --session test-authorization.session
tpm2_policyauthorize --session test-authorization.session --input test-authorized-policy.policy --name policy-authorization-key.name --ticket test-authorized-policy.tkt--input test-authorized-policy.policyspecifies the policy being verified.--ticket test-authorized-policy.tktspecifies the verification ticket produced above.
Other options have already been covered.
Our auth session is now ready to unseal our passphrase (assuming you haven't encountered any errors so far). We do this with tpm2_unseal:
tpm2_unseal --auth session:test-authorization.session --object-context sealed-passphrase.handle | cryptsetup open /dev/sda5 --test-passphrase && echo "success!"--auth session:test-authorization.sessionspecifies the session that is used to authorize the unseal.- This could also be a key's auth value if it didn't use policy based authorization.
--object-context sealed-passphrase.handlespecifies the object to unseal.
The output of tpm2_unseal is printed to STDOUT by default, and we pipe this directly into cryptsetup, where we use the --test-passphrase option of the open action to check the passphrase without doing anything else. This test will simply return 0 (success) if the passphrase is good, so we echo some feedback if this is the case so we know it worked.
Hopefully this test went well for you. If not, you'll have to double check the documentation, re-read above, and troubleshoot. If you need to re-do the steps in this section you should probably use tpm2_evictcontrol to delete the objects we persisted to the TMP the first time around so you don't have stray objects stored. Before you go that far back though, try re-doing some or all of the test procedure above.
This section can be completed either using an Arch Linux live disk, or an already installed Arch Linux system. You are responsible for installing any needed packages (if you've been following from the beginning you already have everything), and for ensuring the security of your private keys (to be generated below).
Before getting into how to take control of secure boot, read at least the first two sections of Rod's Guide to Controlling Secure Boot before proceeding to get a better background on how secure boot works.
Another excellent resource is this guide from the Funtoo Wiki, or this archived page from the Gentoo Wiki. A few more options are linked in the resources section (including one from the NSA!).
All of these are similar to this section in that they will show you how to take control of secure boot (and in some cases how to secure grub, as covered in the next section). Feel free to use them instead of this one if they work for you. In particular, this guide only describes one pathway and set of tools to configure secure boot (though it is the pathway that will hopefully work in the most cases). If it doesn't work for your hardware/firmware, those guides have other variations that may work.
If you do follow one of those guides instead, make sure to come back here for the remaining sections where we secure grub and set up some pacman hooks to automate the signing of our bootloader with the new secure book keys, among other important things.
Assuming you are still here, the first step to take control of secure boot on your machine is to generate new secure boot keys of your own. In this guide we will also be retaining the default keys so you can still boot Windows and get firmware updates with secure boot on. If you have decided not to retain those keys it should be easy to skip the relevant sections below.
To generate a new Platform Key (PK), Key Exchange Key (KEK), and Database Key (db), you can use openssl. The examples in this guide will be using openssl 1.1.1.k, which is the latest release at the time of writing (openssl 3.0 is not ready for primetime yet).
The following command will produce an RSA 2048 private key, and a matching public key certificate.
openssl req -new -x509 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout PK.key -out PK.crt -days 7300 -sha256 -nodesreqis theopensslcertificate request tool.-newtellsreqto create a new certificate request.-x509tellsreqto create a self-signed certificate rather than just a request for one (which you would sent to a CA to get signed).-newkey rsa:2048tells openssl to generate a new private key using RSA 2048.-keyout PK.keyspecifies the output file for the private key.-out PK.crtspecifies the output file for the certificate.-days 7300specifies how long the certificate should be valid for.- Since we are putting this certificate in our computer firmware, we want it to last a while. Will you still have this computer in ~20 years?
-sha256specifies that sha256 should be used for the message digest.-nodesthis tells openssl to not encrypt the private key.- If you want to encrypt it with a password, remove this option and you will be prompted, however
reqdefaults to an encryption cipher that some consider to be too weak (3DES) and can't be configured otherwise. Alternatively you could use thepkcs8tool fromopensslto encrypt the db key with better parameters after generating it, or see below for another option.
- If you want to encrypt it with a password, remove this option and you will be prompted, however
When you run this command you will be prompted to enter some details about yourself as the issuer of the certificate. You can put as little or as much as you want here, but at least set the common name and/or organization. These can also be set from the above command with, for example, -subj /CN=your common name/O=your org name/ if you do not want to do it interactively.
Unfortunately it is difficult to find a good list of all values that can go in here. They are listed in RFC 5280 section 4.1.2.4, but the short names are not included there. You can find some of them on this SO post.
As an example, this is the subject/issuer you'll find in the default PK on a lenovo thinkpad from 2016: /C=JP/ST=Kanagawa/L=Yokohama/O=Lenovo Ltd./CN=Lenovo Ltd. PK CA 2012
Run the above command three times, generating a PK, KEK, and db key.
openssl req -new -x509 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout PK.key -out PK.crt -days 7300 -sha256 -nodes -subj "/C=CA/ST=Alberta/L=Calgary/CN=My Name, yyyy-mm-dd PK/"
openssl req -new -x509 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout KEK.key -out KEK.crt -days 7300 -sha256 -nodes -subj "/C=CA/ST=Alberta/L=Calgary/CN=My Name, yyyy-mm-dd KEK/"
openssl req -new -x509 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout db.key -out db.crt -days 7300 -sha256 -nodes -subj "/C=CA/ST=Alberta/L=Calgary/CN=My Name, yyyy-mm-dd db/"Make sure you store the private keys (.key), as well as the original certificates in a safe place as with the other sensitive data we have created previously (again a LUKS encrypted flash drive partition could be a good choice). You will need the db key and certificate regularly to re-sign your bootloader, so we will also want to copy that one to /root/bootkeys like we did with certain files in the TPM section. Before that though, we should do more to protect the db key when the disk is unlocked than just using file system controls, this is a private key after all. Lets encrypt our db key more securely than req would have without -nodes.
Wait, a PGP key? What does that have to do with what we are doing here? While we could certainly securely encrypt our db key with the openssl pkcs8 tool, we will be using a PGP key in the next section to secure grub. Using this same key to encrypt the db key saves you having to enter multiple passphrases to unlock keys when doing a system update, as gpg-agent will hold on to the passphrase for you for 10 minutes after you enter it (This is the default behaviour. To change this to a different amount of time add default-cache-ttl some-number-of-seconds to the config file below).
As alluded to above, to create a PGP key we will use the package gnupg (Gnu Privacy Guard) which implements the OpenPGP standard. This package is already installed since it is a dependency of pacman. The two parts of this package we will be using are gpg which is the main command line tool, and gpg-agent which is a key generation and management daemon that gpg launches as needed and interfaces with. The version of the package used to make this guide was 2.2.27.
By default gpg-agent will calibrate it's key derivation function (the function that transforms your passphrase into a cryptographic key with an acceptable amount of entropy) so that it takes 100ms to unlock on your given system. This is similar to what LUKS does, except the default target for LUKS is 2 seconds to mitigate low entropy passphrases. We even increased this to 10 seconds for our backup LUKS passphrase!
Recall the idea here is to make it more costly for an attacker to brute force the passphrase. If your passphrase is really really good then the point is moot, but "high entropy" and "easy for a human to remember" rarely go hand in hand. Ultimately it's up to you.
To increase gpg-agent's iteration time we can create a config file for it in /root/bootkeys/gnupg/gpg-agent.conf with an alternate iteration target. You are welcome to use whatever value you want. Here we will match the LUKS default of 2 seconds (2000ms).
mkdir -m 600 /root/bootkeys/gnupg
printf '%s\n' 's2k-calibration 2000' > /root/bootkeys/gnupg/gpg-agent.confIf you are running this in a non-root shell you need to wrap the printf line in sudo bash -c to allow the shell output redirection > to write to this directory.
The config file is at this path as we will be using this as our home directory for gpg. Since this key is just for securing grub and the db key on this machine it makes sense to keep it separate from any other keys you use personally (which would end up in /home/youruser/.gnupg by default). We will be including an option in all our gpg commands to ensure that the home directory is /root/bootkeys/gnupg. If you are experienced with gpg and would rather manage this key with the rest of your keys then by all means adjust the following commands and scripts accordingly.
As above, create a gpg.conf file with a single setting:
printf '%s\n' 'pinentry-mode loopback' > /root/bootkeys/gnupg/gpg.confThis tells gpg to use the current shell for pin entry rather than a pinentry program. Unfortunately this means there is NO second confirmation entry so be careful when setting your passphrase for the first time!!
This is only necessary if you are running gpg with sudo or from a terminal where you ran su root (as opposed to a tty that you logged in as root on such as when you boot an arch live disk). The issue is that the pinentry program doesn't work if the permissions on the current tty do no match the user that ran gpg, and if you use sudo or su root the tty is still owned by your less privileged user. This is ALSO an issue when scripts run by pacman use gpg as those scripts run as root.
Sadly the GnuPG team has no intention of fixing this. You can get more details about this loopback workaround on this debian bug report. Note that contrary to the situation described in that bug report, it actually makes sense for root to own this gpg keyring, not for extra security, but because the primary way we will interact with it is via pacman scripts that run as root, and it's only used for secure boot/secure GRUB.
The following command will generate a new keyring in /root/bootkeys/gnupg containing the new key. gnupg will automatically prompt you to create a passphrase to secure the keyring. You will be asked for this passphrase whenever you need to use the key to sign files. This will happen when you update your system with pacman and the scripts we will setup in the following sections are triggered, so requiring you to enter your passphrase at this point is just one more prompt in the already manual system update process.
gpg --homedir /root/bootkeys/gnupg --gen-key--homedir /root/bootkeys/gnupgspecifies the directory that gpg should look for a keyring and config files in.- If no keyring is found here it will make one.
- We are using a non-standard home directory here to prevent clashing with other uses of
gpg. If you know what you are doing you are welcome to put the key in an existing keyring, however you will have to adjust the scripts in the next section to specify which key they should be using rather than just taking the first key it finds (which is the only key in this case here).
--gen-keyspecifies that gpg should generate a new key using the default settings (RSA 2048 key pair).- This will prompt you to create a new user profile to store the key under (name and email). These do not have to be real unless you plan to share the public portion of this key with others (probably better to make a different key for that).
There are other ways to generate a key, this just appeared to be the simplest. This Article from RedHat describes the process in more detail.
This key we will be using solely to secure our boot process, so like our secure boot certificates we want it to last a while without having to think about extending it's expiry date. By default it will expire after only a year or two. To increase this we have to use the gpg --edit-key interactive prompt. Below this interaction is reproduced for reference with some parts trimmed for brevity.
gpg --homedir /root/bootkeys/gnupg --edit-key <the email address you entered when creating the key>
# Trimmed a bunch of output about the gpg version and a list of all the keys in the trustdb
gpg> expire
Changing expiration time for the primary key.
# Trimmed instructions for how to enter the value
Key is valid for? (0) 7300
Key expires at <date ~20 years from today>
Is this correct? (y/N) y
# You will be prompted for your passphrase here, after which the list of keys will be printed again showing the new date on the primary key
gpg> key 1
# The list of keys will be printed again with a * next to the selected subkey
gpg> expire
Changing expiration time for a subkey.
# Trimmed the same process as above except it probably won't ask for your passphrase again since it is within 10 minutes.
gpg> save
# Saves changes and exitsAt this point both the primary key and the subkey should be set to expire in 20 years similar to our secure boot certificates. You are welcome to choose a different amount of time, or make it never expire if you want.
With all of that done, we can finally encrypt our db key and copy it and the db certificate to /root/bootkeys
gpg --homedir /root/bootkeys/gnupg --recipient <the email address of your new PGP key> --output /root/bootkeys/db.key --encrypt db.key--homedir /root/bootkeys/gnupgspecifies the directory that gpg should look for a keyring and config files in.--recipient <the email address of your new PGP key>specifies the recipient of the encrypted file (us), meaning that our new key should be the one used to encrypt the file.- Since this is asymmetric encryption, the public key is used to encrypt the file, and then the private key will be used to decrypt it later.
- If you had another person's public key in your keyring you could encrypt a file for them instead. You can also add multiple recipients and all of them would be able to decrypt the same file. Not that any of that is relevant here.
--output /root/bootkeys/db.keyspecifies the output file, which we might as well write directly to/root/bootkeys.--encrypt db.keyactually tells gpg to encrypt the file. This option MUST be last for some reason.
Finally, copy the certificate to /root/bootkeys and restrict access to both files:
cp db.crt /root/bootkeys/db.crt
chmod 400 /root/bootkeys/db.key
chmod 400 /root/bootkeys/db.crtNow we can continue with our secure boot setup. Well use this PGP key again when we secure grub in the next section.
The certificates generated by openssl are not in the format needed by the tools we will use to install them in the firmware. To fix this we will use some utilities from the efitools package. The version we are using here is 1.9.2.
We want to convert our certificates to EFI Signature List (.esl) format. To do this, the following command is used:
cert-to-efi-sig-list -g <your guid> PK.crt PK.esl-g <your guid>is used to provide a GUID to identify the owner of the certificate (you). If this is not provided, an all zero GUID will be used.PK.crtis the input certificate.PK.eslis the output esl file.
In order to provide our own GUID for the certificate owner, we have to generate one. There is a multitude of ways to do this, but in this case a utility called uuidgen will do the trick:
GUID=$(uuidgen)
echo $GUID > /root/bootkeys/GUID.txtThe first line generates the GUID and assigns it to a shell variable called GUID that we will use below, the second line echos the value into a text file so we can keep it beyond the current shell session.
Run the above command to convert each of the three certificates, also adding the GUID we just generated:
cert-to-efi-sig-list -g $GUID PK.crt PK.esl
cert-to-efi-sig-list -g $GUID KEK.crt KEK.esl
cert-to-efi-sig-list -g $GUID db.crt db.eslSince we want to be able to dual boot Windows 10, it is important that we preserve the default KEK, db, and dbx entries from Microsoft and the computer manufacturer. Maintaining Microsoft's keys will ensure that Windows can still boot, and maintaining the manufacturer keys will ensure we can still install things like EFI/BIOS updates, which are often distributed as EFI binaries signed by the manufacturer's key, that run on reboot to update the firmware. It is especially important that we preserve the dbx entries if we are keeping the Microsoft keys, as the dbx contains a black list of signed efi binaries (mostly all signed by Microsoft) that are not allowed to run, despite being signed by an certificate in the db (one of the Microsoft keys). "But I only need the db and dbx keys for this" you might be thinking. True, but if we do not keep the KEKs too, you cannot benefit from updates to the db and dbx issued by Microsoft or your computer manufacturer. Removing the manufacturer's PK does prevent them from issuing new KEKs, but this is much less likely, and if you want to take control of secure boot there is no way around replacing the PK, unless you have access to the private key it was made with.
Finally, while most firmware has an option to restore factory default keys, if yours does not, you may want to keep these keys for that use case too.
To preserve the existing keys, we will use another utility from efitools called efi-readvar. This utility runs in Linux user-space and can read efi secure variables such as the secure boot variables:
efi-readvar -v KEK -o original_KEK.esl-v KEKspecifies the efi variable to read-o original_KEK.eslfile to output the contents to (notice this is also in.eslformat.)
Run the above command for each of KEK, db, and dbx. We do not need the PK as we will be replacing this with our own, and there can only be one.
efi-readvar -v KEK -o original_KEK.esl
efi-readvar -v db -o original_db.esl
efi-readvar -v dbx -o original_dbx.eslWith the .esl file format, we can easily merge our new keys with the existing ones by simply concatenating the files:
cat KEK.esl original_KEK.esl > all_KEK.esl
cat db.esl original_db.esl > all_db.eslWhile we don't technically need to do this step, since the firmware should accept any keys in secure boot setup mode (we'll get to that later), it is more correct to use signed update files and some firmware might insist on it.
If you want to add a KEK or db entry after secure boot is no longer in setup mode, you'll have to sign it with the next highest key so let's do that now as practice. The PK is considered the root of trust, just like the root certificate from a certificate authority such as entrust or lets encrypt. The following command is used to sign the signature lists:
sign-efi-sig-list -k PK.key -c PK.crt PK PK.esl PK.auth-k PK.keyspecifies the private key for the certificate.-c PK.crtspecifies the certificate to sign with.PKis the EFI variable the output is intended for.PK.eslis the EFI signature list file to sign.PK.authis the name of signed EFI signature list file, with a.authextension indicating that it has an authentication header added.
Run the above command for each .esl file:
sign-efi-sig-list -k PK.key -c PK.crt PK PK.esl PK.auth
sign-efi-sig-list -k PK.key -c PK.crt KEK all_KEK.esl all_KEK.auth
sign-efi-sig-list -k KEK.key -c KEK.crt db all_db.esl all_db.auth
sign-efi-sig-list -k KEK.key -c KEK.crt dbx original_dbx.esl dbx.authThe PK signs itself, the PK also signs the KEKs, and our KEK (the only one we have the private key for) signs the db and dbx keys. Note that since we don't have anything to add to the dbx, we just sign the original list.
Our db key is later used to sign EFI binaries that we want to boot, the KEK is used if we want to add new db entries, and the PK is used if we want to add new KEK entries.
The first step here is to put secure boot into setup mode by removing the current PK. This can be done from the BIOS setup utility, but beyond that, the exact steps differ greatly across hardware. Typically there will be a security section, and in that, a secure boot section. This is where you would have turned secure boot off in order to install Arch Linux initially and boot the live disk. Look for an option to put secure boot into setup mode, or an option to delete all secure boot keys. If you see both, delete all keys, as this often prevents certain issues with the tool we will be using (we saved all the old keys and will be putting them back anyway). Some firmware may require a firmware password to be set before these options are shown. Setup mode is on when there is no PK. Once a new PK is set, secure boot turns back to user mode, and any updates to any of the secure variables must by signed by the next highest key.
Quick note: you may see a reference to
noPK.eslor similar in Rod's guide and the Gentoo wiki archive (both linked at the start of this section). This is an empty file signed with the PK that can be used to "update" the PK to nothing (remove the PK) while in user mode, thereby putting secure boot back into setup mode without entering the BIOS setup utility. This works because the PK can be updated in user mode as long as the update is signed by the current PK. Unless you are changing your keys often, you likely won't need this.
WARNING!!
BEFORE you reboot into the BIOS, make sure you save the original private keys, as well as the TPM auth values somewhere secure if you haven't already! Assuming you have been following closely, all your keys are sitting in your current working directory which is a ramfs and all data will be LOST PERMANENTLY when you reboot, requiring you to repeat some of the steps above to make new keys. You also probably want to save your signed esl files from above (the .auth ones) so that you don't have to recreate them. These are just certificate lists so they don't need to be stored as securely as the private keys, but make sure they are somewhere outside the ramfs!
Once secure boot is in setup mode, we can use an efitools utility called efi-updatevar to replace each of the secure variables:
efi-updatevar -f PK.auth PK-f PK.authspecifies the file to update the variable with.PK.authis the efi signature list (signed in this example) that will be set on the variable.- If you wan to use a .esl file here, you need to also add a
-ebefore or after this.
- If you wan to use a .esl file here, you need to also add a
PKis the secure variable we want to update
NOTE: This command as written will replace all the values in the variable. It is possible to instead append with -a but this seems to have problems on some firmware, while just replacing everything usually works, and in this case we added the old keys to ours and (ideally) cleared out all the secure variables before starting anyway. The reason it is ideal to clear out all the variables before starting is also because some firmware will not accept a replacement if there is a value present. Clearing all the keys and using the replacement command above appears to work in the most cases.
Run the above command for dbx, db, KEK, and PK, preferably in that order, but just make sure the PK is last so that we keep setup mode active.
efi-updatevar -f dbx.auth dbx
efi-updatevar -f all_db.auth db
efi-updatevar -f all_KEK.auth KEK
efi-updatevar -f PK.auth PKSince we signed our efi signature lists and created auth files we should theoretically be able to update the KEK, db, and dbx even after setting the PK (which takes us out of setup mode), but efi-updatevar seems to have trouble doing this at least on the machine used as a testbed for this guide. There are other tools that work better for updating with signed esl files (.auth) when secure boot is in user mode. For example KeyTool, also from efitools seems to work fairly well, however it is an efi binary so you have to reboot to use it (like your BIOS setup), which is more cumbersome.
If you successfully completed all of the above sections, you now have your own keys added to secure boot, so you can start signing bootloaders and other efi binaries with your db key!
If you want to quickly test your handiwork efitools supplies a HelloWorld efi binary that you can sign and try to boot into. Assuming your efi system partition is mounted at /efi as we setup earlier, we can use a tool called sbsign from the sbsigntools package to sign the efi binary like so:
mv /efi/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi /efi/EFI/Boot/bootx64-prev.efi # Rename the existing default boot entry so that we can restore it later.
sbsign --key db.key --cert /root/bootkeys/db.crt --output /efi/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi /usr/share/efitools/efi/HelloWorld.efi--key db.keyspecifies the private key to sign the file with.- You'll need to either decrypt the one we put in
/root/bootkeyswith gpg or use the unencrypted one that you stored securely before. Unfortunately sbsign does not appear to support receiving this key from STDIN so you have to decrypt the key to a file, use it here, and then delete the decrypted version. Seealpm-hooks/scrips/secure-boot-sign-grubin this repo for an example of this. - If you are reading ahead you can also sign this file before unmounting the ramfs and putting secure boot in setup mode.
- You'll need to either decrypt the one we put in
--cert /root/bootkeys/db.crtspecifies the public certificate for the given private key that was added to secure boot.--output /boot/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efispecifies where to save the signed version of the file./usr/share/efitools/efi/HelloWorld.efispecifies the file to sign.
After running this, reboot, and enter BIOS setup. Enable secure boot and move your boot drive to the top of your boot order (above grub). When you exit setup it should try to boot the HelloWorld binary since it is in the efi default location for that drive, and because we signed it, it should work (the message it prints on the screen will mention the opposite, but we signed this file, so it is NOT an unsigned binary). If it doesn't, then something went wrong up above.
If you want to really prove to yourself that secure boot is working now, try to boot back into grub while secure boot is still on. Grub won't work, but this HelloWorld binary will, since we signed it.
To get back to linux, just put grub back at the top of your boot order.
Don't forget to replace the hello world binary with the file that used to be there!
Important!
Now that we have setup secure boot, we need to make sure unauthorized users cannot just turn it off. To do this, set an administrator password on your BIOS configuration. Every BIOS is a little different so the specifics can't be covered here, but if you don't do this, you will remove nearly all benefit of using secure boot!
Now that we have added our own secure boot key we can use it to sign our grub binary in order to ensure with reasonable confidence that it has not been tampered with (the actual signing will be done in the next section). In addition to grub itself, we also want to have reasonable confidence that the other files loaded by grub have not been tampered with, such as the grub configuration file and the kernel and initramfs image that will contain our boot scripts. We can do this by configuring grub to only load files that are signed with a trusted key. The documentation for this can be found here, but essentially we need to embed the public portion of our PGP key into the grub binary, and then sign any files that grub will be loading with the private portion. We also need to secure advanced grub functions with a passphrase to prevent the signature checking function from just being turned off.
If you skipped over the Secure Boot section, we generated a new PGP key there: Generate a PGP key
Now that we have a PGP key, we need to tell grub to only load files that have been signed by it. To do this, we embed the public part of the key into the grub binary. Before this can happen, we have to export the public portion to a file.
DO NOT use the -a or --armor option here as GRUB cannot load ascii armored public keys. It must remain in binary format!
gpg --homedir /root/bootkeys/gnupg --output /root/bootkeys/secure-grub.pgp --export <yourChosenUser@exampleDomain.com>--homedir /root/bootkeys/gnupgour non-standard home directory.--export <yourChosenUser@exampleDomain.com>specifies which key should be exported based on the email address entered when the key was generated.--output /root/bootkeys/secure-grub.pgpspecifies where to write the exported public key file.
This is just a public key, but still might as well restrict access to it.
chmod 400 /root/bootkeys/secure-grub.pgpTo embed the key in the grub binary, we can add the --pubkey flag to grub-install. We will be automating this in the next section, but here is how you would do it manually, using the same settings we used earlier. Note that we have added some additional crypto related modules that grub needs to successfully verify signatures. Without these it will just complain that "sha256" has not been loaded (or similar).
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/efi --bootloader-id=GRUB --modules="tpm gcry_sha256 gcry_sha512 gcry_rsa" --pubkey /root/bootkeys/secure-grub.pgpWarning!
Embedding the key will automatically turn on grub's check_signatures rule, and you will not be able to boot unless all files grub loads (including the configuration file!) are signed. It is recommended that you don't shutdown and reboot after doing this until you have having completed the next two sections and signed grub's files.
Even with an embedded public key and check_signatures turned on, anyone with physical access can just enter the grub shell and turn it off. To prevent this, we need to lock those features behind a passphrase. Grub provides a way to do this with pbkdf2 hash derivation such that it can be included in grub.cfg without exposing the password to anyone reading the file. Password generation is done with a utility included with grub called grub-mkpasswd-pbkdf2, which will prompt you to enter your chosen passphrase twice and then print out the resulting salt and hash.
grub-mkpasswd-pbkdf2 --iteration-count 2300000 > password-hash.txt--iteration-count 2300000specifies that 2300000 pdkdf2 iterations should be used which will result in a ~2 second unlock time on the test computer.- This number was obtained by running
cryptsetup benchmarkand looking at the number of iterations per second for PBKDF2-sha512, which is what this utility uses by default. This number should adjusted to suit your target system. 2 seconds was chosen to match the LUKS default, which was chosen to balance security and convenience. You could also make this larger, as the password is not likely to be needed very often.
- This number was obtained by running
> password-hash.txtspecifies that the output ofgrub-mkpasswd-pbkdf2should be written to a file.
For more information on grub-mkpasswd-pbkdf2, including additional configuration options, see this page.
From here you can edit the file to just contain the hash (remove the text preceding grub.pbkdf2...), and then use cat to append it to an appropriately prepared 40_custom as per below. This is much easier than transcribing it twice (assuming you are using a tty prompt. If you installed a desktop environment already then you can just copy and paste).
With the passphrase hash generated, grub needs to be configured to accept it. The simplest way to accomplish this is to add the following lines to /etc/grub.d/40_custom
set superusers="root"
password_pbkdf2 root grub.pbkdf2.sha512.2300000.some-sha512-hash.some-other-sha512-hash
The second line here should include the real output of your call to grub-mkpasswd-pbkdf2. This will setup a single "superuser" called "root" with the password you just entered. For more details, see this page.
Note the Arch Linux grub package is specifically configured to NOT overwrite 40_custom when updating grub, unlike the 10_linux file in the same directory, which is overwritten (as you will see below).
Once we embed the public key in the grub image, all files loaded by grub must be signed with the key we generated. Signatures are expected in separate signature files with the same name as the signed file. For a relatively simple grub setup like we have here, the files we need to sign are:
/boot/grub/*/boot/vmlinuz-linux/boot/initramfs-*
This includes our grub config file (grub.cfg), all grub modules not already included in the grub binary, the kernel image itself (vmlinuz-linux), and any initramfs images we have (there should be two, a regular one and a fallback).
To sign all these files, we can use find with the -exec option:
find /boot -type f \( -path "/boot/grub/*" -or -name "vmlinuz*" -or -name "initramfs*" \) -not -name "*.sig" -exec gpg --homedir /root/bootkeys/gnupg --detach-sign --yes {} \;find:
/bootspecifies the starting directory for the search.-type fspecifies that only files should be returned (not directories, links, etc).\(an escaped(used tellfindto group clauses together. It must be escaped or bash will try to interpret it as something else.-path "/boot/grub/*"specifies files in/boot/grubshould returned.-or -name "vmlinuz*"specifies files starting withvmlinuzshould be returned.-or -name "initramfs*"specifies files starting withinitramfsshould be returned.\)an escaped)to close the grouping started above.-not -name "*.sig"specifies files ending in.sigshould NOT be returned.- This ensures that if we run this more than once it overwrites the signature files rather than signing them as well (e.g.
filename.sig.sig) - Since we have grouped all the preceding clauses, this will apply to all of them.
- This ensures that if we run this more than once it overwrites the signature files rather than signing them as well (e.g.
-exec gpg --homedir /root/bootkeys/gnupg --detach-sign --yes {} \;tellsfindto execute this command on every result. Details below.
gpg:
--homedir /root/bootkeys/gnupgspecifies our non-standard home directory.--detach-signspecifies that gpg should put the signature in a separate file.--yesspecifies that gpg should assume "yes" for most questions.- This saves you from having to answer 100 "signature already exists, do you want to replace it?" questions when running this more than once.
{}will be replaced with a the currentfindresult, and tell gpg to sign that file as it loops over all the results.\;an escaped;tellsfindthat this is the end of the exec command.
You will be prompted for your gpg keyring passphrase once, after which it will be saved by gpg-agent for about 10 minutes by default. This command might take a while to complete depending on how fast your CPU is, as there are quite a few files in the grub directory to sign. It took nearly 10 minutes on an i5-6200U using a rsa3072 key, which is the default key size in gnupg 2.2.27. If it takes longer than you want you could always back up a couple steps and generate a new rsa2048 key, which should be able to process faster.
When running this multiple times we are simply overwriting all of the signatures with new ones as we don't know which files may have been changed by an update, and checking each one before re-signing would take significantly longer than just re-signing everything.
Why do yourself what the computer can do for you?
You can perform custom actions at early boot by adding scripts to something called the initramfs. This wiki page explains what that is really well.
The two sentence version as quoted from the mkinitcpio man page is:
The initial ramdisk is in essence a very small environment (early userspace) which loads various kernel modules and sets up necessary things before handing over control to
init. This makes it possible to have, for example, encrypted root file systems and root file systems on a software RAID array.
init is process 1 on most modern linux systems. It is the first process run by the kernel and all other processes are spawned from it and it remains running until shutdown. In the case of Arch Linux, init is usually systemd. For more info, check out the Arch Boot Process.
As of this writing, Arch Linux uses a set of shell scripts in a package called mkinitcpio to generate initramfs images. There is talk among the Arch maintainers of switching to a package called dracut that is more widely used in other distributions (mkinitcpio is custom made for Arch Linux), but so far this has not happened. mkinitcpio provides a mechanism to add custom scripts, or "hooks" to the initramfs to customize the boot process. It is these hooks that we will use to automatically unseal our LUKS passphrase from the TPM at boot. Further documentation on mkinitcpio can be found in it's Arch Wiki Page, although that page is sadly not quite representative of the generally excellent quality of articles on the Arch Wiki. While there is plenty of very useful information in there, it falls just short of actually explaining how to create custom hooks or presets. The man page gives a bit more detail on some parts, but also stops short of showing an example of it all coming together.
The default mkinitcpio config file is located at /etc/mkinitcpio.conf. There are also "preset" files located in /etc/mkinitcpio.d/ that are generated for each kernel package you have installed based on the template found at /usr/share/mkinitcpio/hook.preset. With all that said, the defaults will be fine for the purposes of this guide. The linux preset (generated from the above template for the linux package) uses the default config file to generate a main initramfs image, and a fallback image in case there is a problem with the first one. These images are nearly identical except for the file name and a few options, and updating the default config will change both of them. The format of the presets actually allow the use of different config files for different initramfs images if desired (you can even generate more than two images), but that is not necessary here.
For our purposes here, we wil be adding two custom hooks. One to automatically unseal our LUKS passphrase with the TPM called tpm2_encrypt, and another to help us boot Windows in a Bitlocker friendly way called bitlocker_windows_boot. You will find these custom hooks in a folder in this repo called /mkinitcpio. There are two files related to each hook that you will find there in folders called hooks and install. This is because mkinitcpio hooks come in two parts, the build/install hook, and the runtime hook(s).
The install hook tells mkinitcpio what to include in the initramfs so that the runtime hook can function. For example, tpm2_encrypt needs access to a number of tpm2-tools binaries, as well as other tpm related libraries and kernel modules. The install hook also contains a help text that can be printed by mkinitcpio using the --hookhelp hookname flag once the hook is installed. In general mkinitcpio can automatically detect shared libraries needed by the binaries included by the install script, but if you look at tpm2_encrypt you will see that some additional ones had to be added manually.
The runtime hook can define up to four different shell functions that are run at four different points in the boot process. These are listed here. The functions themselves can do whatever you want them to, within the bounds of the early boot environment. A list of common hooks available in Arch Linux through various packages can be found on the same page linked just a little further down.
Important
As noted in the Arch Wiki for mkinitcpio, runtime hooks only work with busybox init (presently the default for Arch Linux). If you use the systemd hook to init with systemd then you will not be able to use the runtime hooks created for this guide. ("init" here means initial setup, not process 1 as described earlier).
To "install" these custom hooks on your system, simply copy them to /etc/initcpio/install/ or /etc/initcpio/hooks/ as appropriate and ensure they have the executable flag (chmod +x). You still have to add these hooks to mkinitcpio.conf in order to add them to the initramfs image, which we will do below after explaining how they work a little more.
For tpm2_encrypt there are comments throughout the runtime hook file (or otherwise very descriptive names), as well as an extensive helptext in its install file, so how it works will not be explained in great detail here.
To summarize, it looks for the files that we copied to our flash drive earlier and uses them to build a real authorization session and unseal the LUKS passphrase that we previously sealed in the TPM. It has a lot of checks for input errors (kernel arguments), and will offer to create a new authorized policy (after you have entered your passphrase manually) if something fails. It will even show you which PCR values changed if it fails to unseal the passphrase so you can make an informed decision about whether you expected those changes before entering your passphrase manually. If you have a temporary authorized policy like we created earlier, it will create a new "more secure" authorized policy without asking (assuming it is able to unseal the passphrase with that temporary policy).
Please look at the source to learn more. In particular, do not neglect to read the help text in the install hook, as it contains critical information regarding kernel command line arguments needed for it to work.
To add tpm2_encrypt to your initramfs image, simply edit mkinitcpio.conf to include it in HOOKS. Please note that as mentioned in the help text for tpm2_encrypt, it is written as an extension for the encrypt hook that was added earlier (if you followed the installation section), and should be placed before encrypt in HOOKS.
Here is an example: HOOKS="base udev autodetect keyboard modconf block filesystems tpm2_encrypt encrypt fsck"
Hooks are run in the order listed in the config file for each of the four parts of the boot process (Eg. All early hooks are run in this order, then all main hooks, etc).
You also want to add the filesystem module(s) for the filesystem you are using for your USB drive partition to MODULES. The filesystem you are using for your encrypted luksContainer should get auto detected for you, but if you are using a filesystem other than that you need to tell mkinitcpio to load it. For example, if your drive is fat32 add fat vfat to MODULES. If you do not do this, tpm2_encrypt will not be able to mount your drive and it will fall back to a passphrase prompt.
This hook needs a little more explanation as to why it is needed, although the actual implementation is extremely straightforward and again will not be discussed in detail. Just look at the hook file, it's only a couple lines.
The typical way to dual boot Windows and linux with GRUB is to chain-load the windows boot loader from GRUB. The problem with this approach is that if you are using TPM based bitlocker on Windows and you update GRUB the PCR measurements for GRUB would change, which would break bitlocker.
To get around this we can add another hook to our initramfs that will set the EFI boot-next* variable to the Windows boot entry and then reboot before fully initializing Linux. This way, Windows always boots the same way - directly from the Windows boot manager, without even needing to know that GRUB exists. If Windows wants to update it's own boot manager, it already has a process for re-sealing the Bitlocker key in the TPM (similar in result to the process we are setting up for linux involving the temporary authorized policies, but probably implemented completely differently).
* EFI boot-next overrides the boot order you set in your BIOS but only for the next boot
There doesn't appear to be a way to set the boot-next variable directly in GRUB. If you know how, please let me know or submit a PR! This would save us having to load the linux kernel just to set the boot-next variable.
Add bitlocker_windows_boot the same way you added the first hook. Edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf and add bitlocker_windows_boot to HOOKS. You'll want to add it near the front of the list so it runs before the other hooks (faster), but make sure that it's at least after base. The hook will only be activated if it sees a certain kernel argument so it can live alongside our other hooks in the same initramfs image without having an effect on the boot process for linux.
Now that the hooks have been added to the correct folders, and the config file, we need to generate a new initramfs image that includes these hooks.
To do this, simply run
mkinitcpio -p linux-p linuxspecifies the "linux" preset.- This preset was generated from the template when the
linuxpackage (the default kernel package in Arch Linux) was installed. If you are using a different kernel or preset, adjust accordingly.
- This preset was generated from the template when the
If you read the help text for tpm2_encrypt and/or the requirements for the encrypt hook then you know there are a few required command line arguments for these two hooks to work correctly. These arguments need to be added to our GRUB menu entries so they are passed to the kernel at boot. To do this, we need to update /etc/default/grub to include these arguments in GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT. The exact arguments needed are left for you to determine using the documentation provided, however here are example arguments:
tpm_files_part=PARTUUID=some-uuid-for-dev-sda5 cryptdevice=PARTUUID=the-uuid-of-the-luks-partition:cryptroot
There are many more optional arguments for tpm2_encrypt that are meant to provide flexibility without having to change the code in the hook, but we are sticking to the defaults here.
This is also in addition to any other kernel arguments you may want to add that are actually related to the kernel, such as the log level or the quiet flag.
You also want to uncomment GRUB_DISABLE_SUBMENU=y at the bottom of the file or everything except the main linux menu entry will be hidden in a subfolder, and more importantly, the patch we will adding to /etc/grub.d/10_linux below will not work!
You will notice that we did not add any arguments to activate bitlocker_windows_boot, and we are also not re-generating the grub config with grub-mkconfig just yet. Both of these things are coming in the next section!
Whenever we update our kernel or boot loader (or even just the bootloader config), the PCR measurements for those components will change. This means that any policy we have created that relies on the previous values will no longer work. To get around this, we can create a temporary policy (as discussed in detail above) that excludes those PCR values for a single boot cycle. This, along with some other useful tasks, can be done automatically with pacman transaction hooks so that we don't even have to think about it.
Pacman hooks, also known as alpm-hooks, are a super easy way to automate parts of package management that would otherwise have to be done manually. Sometimes the Arch Linux developers install hooks with a package, such as with mkinitcpio, where the hook automatically re-generates your initramfs images after updating either the kernel or any of the mkinitcpio hooks you have installed via pacman.
Further reading about hooks is mostly left to you (everything you need to know is in the above manpage), however it should be noted that it appears that the default pacman hooks directory is /etc/pacman.d/hooks not the /usr/local/etc/pacman.d/hooks directory mentioned on the man page. This directory is where custom hooks should go. Hooks installed by packages should go in the system hooks directory /usr/share/libalpm/hooks/ (also not exactly the one mentioned in the man page). If you want to see how that mkinitcpio hook mentioned above works, look for it here.
In this repo you will find a folder called /alpm-hooks/, which contains a number of hooks and supporting scripts written for this guide.
Three hooks are related to grub and secure boot, another creates a temporary policy for tpm2_encrypt.
To "install" these hooks simply copy them to /etc/pacman.d/hooks or /etc/pacman.d/scripts as appropriate (you may have to create these folders), and ensure they all have the executable flag (chmod +x). They will automatically be called whenever you update or install packages with pacman and the events that trigger them occur.
The next few sections explain these hooks in more detail
Updating the grub package does not trigger a re-install of the GRUB boot image on your efi partition, nor does it regenerate the configuration. This was probably a very conscious choice on the part of the Arch Linux maintainers. Everyone has their own slightly different setup, be it different partition scheme, or a non-standard install location, and auto-installing grub for everyone would probably cause more problems that it solves. That said, what is the point of updating the package if the image we are booting with isn't getting updated? Plus, who wants to remember to run grub-install and grub-mkconfig every time with the right arguments? Not to mention signing all the files with our PGP key. Lets add some hooks to fix this!
The main hook is called grub-secure-setup.hook. It runs a script with the same name which has four simple commands.
First it calls grub-install with the same arguments that we used earlier when we first installed it. If your installation is different, you'll want to edit the script accordingly.
The Second call needs a little more explanation. It calls patch and adds a few lines to /etc/grub.d/10_linux based on a patch file found in the same scripts folder. The script expects the patch file to be called grub_10_linux_mod.patch, and depending on wether you are dual-booting windows or not, you'll want to copy the corresponding patch file to /etc/pacman.d/scripts with that name.
grub_10_linux_with_windows_entry.patch adds a GRUB menu entry that will boot our initramfs with the "magic" kernel argument that will activate the initramfs hook bitlocker-windows-boot. To do this manually, you could modify /etc/grub.d/10_linux and add a "linux" menu entry called "Windows 10" to your grub menu. Why do it this way rather than putting it in /etc/grub.d/40_custom where it probably belongs? Well this boot entry is based on the same initramfs image that grub automatically finds and creates entries for in 10_linux and it's nice to take advantage of all that logic. There's only one problem: 10_linux is overwritten every time the grub package is installed. This is why we need to re-patch /etc/grub.d/10_linux to include the Windows entry whenever grub is updated.
So why not just duplicate 10_linux and give it a different name like 11_windows to add this entry? Then there would be an entire custom script to maintain that duplicates a lot of logic. By patching the existing file we can take advantage of any updates from the arch maintainers, since the patch only adds a few lines that call a function defined earlier in the file. It is unlikely that it will change so drastically in the near future so that the patch no longer works. If it does, you can probably come back and find an updated one here.
grub_10_linux_without_windows.patch is similar to the other patch file but excludes the Windows 10 entry. This patch is still important even if you are not dual booting to allow selecting the main linux boot entry without entering the GRUB root password that we added earlier by adding the --unrestricted flag to the menu entry.
Third, grub-secure-setup calls grub-mkconfig the same way we did earlier. Again, edit this script if your system is different.
Finally, it signs all the grub files with find -exec like we did above. If signing all the files as above took a long time, make sure you plan for this whenever you do a system update that includes grub. Thankfully it doesn't get updated too often.
Above we signed the kernel and initramfs in the same command as all the grub files. Here we have separated signing these two files into a separate hook called grub-secure-sign-kernel-initramfs.hook so that updating one of them doesn't have to trigger setting up grub again, when those files haven't changed. This hook does not have an accompanying script file as it only requires one command, which is simply included in the hook itself.
Now that we have setup our own secure boot keys, we need to use the db key to sign our GRUB image (we already signed the kernel and initramfs, which will be verified separately by GRUB). Without this step, we do not have a complete chain of trust.
The hook is called secure-boot-sign-grub, which has an accompanying script of the same name in the scripts folder. The implementation is quite straightforward with plenty of comments, so just go read it yourself.
To automatically create a temporary policy when updating the kernel or bootloader, there is a hook called tpm2-encrypt-create-temporary-policy. This hook also has an accompanying script in the scripts folder. Similar to the tpm2_encrypt hook for mkinitcpio we will not be going into great detail on how it works here. The main parts were covered when we manually created a temporary policy in the previous part of this guide, and there are also comments throughout the script portion of the hook.
The main thing to point out here is that this hook has two trigger sections, meaning it can be triggered by more than one event. In this case, it is triggered by an update to either the kernel or to GRUB, both of which already trigger other hooks to update their binaries in the efi partition (it will not run twice if both events occur).
With all the hooks "installed", re-install grub with pacman (pacman -S grub) to trigger the hooks related to grub and update the grub config with all the kernel arguments we added (to the main config file), as well as add the Windows boot entry and the other things discussed above. This will also trigger the hook to re-create the temporary policy we made earlier, but it was still good to go through that to better understand how this all works. We should not need to re-sign the kernel and initramfs as these have not changed.
You're done! You made it to the end!
From here these scripts should mostly maintain things for you. All you have to do is make sure the USB drive is plugged in whenever you boot, and whenever you run pacman -Syu or equivalent.
You can now turn on bitlocker on the Windows side and it shouldn't be affected by changes on the linux side. You should also enable secure boot if you haven't already (do this before starting bitlocker).
This section reproduces most of the links that were included in-line throughout the guide (it omits some sub-pages), as well as added some other useful links such as online manpages for tools used. All of these form the basis for the information contained within this guide, listed in no particular order, but organized by general topic area.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_maid_attack
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threat_model
- https://xkcd.com/538/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_random_number_generator
- https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-1-4302-6584-9
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_Platform_Module
- https://trustedcomputinggroup.org/resource/pc-client-specific-platform-firmware-profile-specification
- https://trustedcomputinggroup.org/resource/pc-client-platform-tpm-profile-ptp-specification
- https://trustedcomputinggroup.org/resource/tpm-library-specification
- https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub/grub.html#Measured-Boot
- https://tpm2-software.github.io/
- https://github.com/tpm2-software/tpm2-tools/tree/master/man
- https://medium.com/@pawitp/full-disk-encryption-on-arch-linux-backed-by-tpm-2-0-c0892cab9704
- https://blog.dowhile0.org/2017/10/18/automatic-luks-volumes-unlocking-using-a-tpm2-chip/
- https://threat.tevora.com/secure-boot-tpm-2/
- https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installation_guide
- https://www.archlinux.org/mirrorlist/
- https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/EFI_system_partition#Alternative_mount_points
- https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Chroot
- https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GRUB#Configuration
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_ramdisk
- https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_boot_process
- https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mkinitcpio
- https://jlk.fjfi.cvut.cz/arch/manpages/man/mkinitcpio.8
- https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/System_configuration#Boot_loader
- https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Encrypting_an_entire_system#LUKS_on_a_partition
- https://gitlab.com/cryptsetup/cryptsetup/-/wikis/FrequentlyAskedQuestions#2-setup
- https://manpages.debian.org/unstable/cryptsetup-bin/index.html
- https://gitlab.com/cryptsetup/cryptsetup
- https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt
- http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/controlling-sb.html
- https://web.archive.org/web/20201005194738/https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Sakaki's_EFI_Install_Guide/Configuring_Secure_Boot
- https://www.funtoo.org/Secure_Boot
- https://www.openssl.org/docs/man1.1.1/man1/openssl-req.html
- https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5280#section-4.1.2.4
- https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6464129/certificate-subject-x-509
- https://manpages.debian.org/unstable/efitools/index.html
- https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Secure_Boot
- https://askubuntu.com/questions/951040/how-shim-verifies-binaries-in-secure-boot
- https://ubs_csse.gitlab.io/secu_os/tutorials/linux_secure_boot.html
- https://ruderich.org/simon/notes/secure-boot-with-grub-and-signed-linux-and-initrd
- https://media.defense.gov/2020/Sep/15/2002497594/-1/-1/0/CTR-UEFI-Secure-Boot-Customization-UOO168873-20.PDF (Yes this is the NSA)
Some of the secure boot links above also cover secure grub but they are not included here to avoid duplication.