systemd-stub, sd-stub, linuxx64.efi.stub, linuxia32.efi.stub, linuxaa64.efi.stub — A simple UEFI kernel boot stub
/usr/lib/systemd/boot/efi/linuxx64.efi.stub |
/usr/lib/systemd/boot/efi/linuxia32.efi.stub |
/usr/lib/systemd/boot/efi/linuxaa64.efi.stub |
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systemd-stub (stored in per-architecture files
linuxx64.efi.stub, linuxia32.efi.stub,
linuxaa64.efi.stub on disk) is a simple UEFI boot stub. An UEFI boot stub is
attached to a Linux kernel binary image, and is a piece of code that runs in the UEFI firmware
environment before transitioning into the Linux kernel environment. The UEFI boot stub ensures a Linux
kernel is executable as regular UEFI binary, and is able to do various preparations before switching the
system into the Linux world.
The UEFI boot stub looks for various resources for the kernel invocation inside the UEFI PE binary itself. This allows combining various resources inside a single PE binary image (a "Unified Kernel Image" or "UKI" for short), which may then be signed via UEFI SecureBoot as a whole, covering all individual resources at once. Specifically it may include the following PE sections:
A ".linux" section with the ELF Linux kernel
image. (Required)
An ".osrel" section with OS release information, i.e. the contents of
the os-release(5) file
of the OS the kernel belongs to.
A ".cmdline" section with the kernel command line to pass to the
invoked kernel.
An ".initrd" section with the initrd.
A ".ucode" section with an initrd containing microcode, to be handed
to the kernel before any other initrd. This initrd must not be compressed.
A ".splash" section with an image (in the Windows
.BMP format) to show on screen before invoking the kernel.
A ".dtb" section with a compiled binary DeviceTree.
A ".uname" section with the kernel version information, i.e. the
output of uname -r for the kernel included in the ".linux"
section.
An ".sbat" section with
SBAT revocation
metadata.
A ".pcrsig" section with a set of cryptographic signatures for the
expected TPM2 PCR values after the kernel has been booted, in JSON format. This is useful for
implementing TPM2 policies that bind disk encryption and similar to kernels that are signed by a
specific key.
A ".pcrpkey" section with a public key in the PEM format matching the
signature data in the ".pcrsig" section.
In a basic UKI, the sections listed above appear at most once. In a multi-profile UKI,
multiple sets of these sections are present in a single file and form "profiles",
one of which can be selected at boot. For this, the PE section ".profile" is
defined to be used as the separator between sets of sections. The
".profile" section itself may contain meta-information about the section, and follows a
similar structure as the contents of the ".osrel" section. For further details about
multi-profile UKIs, see below.
If UEFI SecureBoot is enabled and the
".cmdline" section is present in the executed image, any attempts to override the kernel
command line by passing one as invocation parameters to the EFI binary are ignored. Thus, in order to
allow overriding the kernel command line, either disable UEFI SecureBoot, or don't include a kernel
command line PE section in the kernel image file. If a command line is accepted via EFI invocation
parameters to the EFI binary it is measured into TPM PCR 12 (if a TPM is present).
If a
DeviceTree is embedded in the ".dtb" section, it replaces an existing DeviceTree in the
corresponding EFI configuration table. systemd-stub will ask the firmware via the
"EFI_DT_FIXUP_PROTOCOL" for hardware specific fixups to the DeviceTree.
The
contents of 11 of these 12 sections are measured into TPM PCR 11. It is otherwise not used and thus the
result can be pre-calculated without too much effort. The ".pcrsig" section is not
included in this PCR measurement, since it is supposed to contain signatures for the output of the
measurement operation, and thus cannot also be input to it. If an UKI contains multiple profiles, only
the PE sections of the selected profile (and those of the base profile, except if overridden) are
measured.
If non-zero, the selected numeric profile is measured into PCR 12.
When ".pcrsig" and/or ".pcrpkey" sections are present in a
unified kernel image their contents are passed to the booted kernel in an synthetic initrd cpio archive
that places them in the /.extra/tpm2-pcr-signature.json and
/.extra/tpm2-pcr-public-key.pem files. Typically, a
tmpfiles.d(5) line then
ensures they are copied into /run/systemd/tpm2-pcr-signature.json and
/run/systemd/tpm2-pcr-public-key.pem where they remain accessible even after the
system transitions out of the initrd environment into the host file system. Tools such
systemd-cryptsetup@.service(8),
systemd-cryptenroll(1)
and systemd-creds(1)
will automatically use files present under these paths to unlock protected resources (encrypted storage
or credentials) or bind encryption to booted kernels.
For further details about the UKI concept, see the UKI specification.
The systemd-stub UEFI boot stub automatically collects three types of auxiliary companion files optionally placed in drop-in directories on the same partition as the EFI binary, dynamically generates cpio initrd archives from them, and passes them to the kernel. Specifically:
For a kernel binary called foo.efi.cred suffix in a directory named
foo.efi.extra.d/foo+3-0.efifoo.efi.extra.d//.extra/credentials/ directory of the initrd file hierarchy. The main initrd may
then access them in this directory. This is supposed to be used to store auxiliary, encrypted,
authenticated credentials for use with LoadCredentialEncrypted= in the UEFI System
Partition. See
systemd.exec(5)
and
systemd-creds(1)
for
details on encrypted credentials. The generated cpio archive is measured into TPM
PCR 12 (if a TPM is present).
Similarly, files
foo.efi.extra.d/*.sysext.raw/.extra/sysext/ directory in the
initrd file hierarchy. This is supposed to be used to pass additional system extension images to the
initrd. See
systemd-sysext(8) for
details on system extension images. The generated cpio archive containing these
system extension images is measured into TPM PCR 13 (if a TPM is present).
Similarly, files
foo.efi.extra.d/*.confext.raw/.extra/confext/ directory in
the initrd file hierarchy. This is supposed to be used to pass additional configuration extension
images to the initrd. See
systemd-confext(8) for
details on configuration extension images. The generated cpio archive containing
these system extension images is measured into TPM PCR 12 (if a TPM is present).
Similarly, files
foo.efi.extra.d/*.addon.efi.cmdline" section), or Devicetree blobs
(".dtb" section), and microcode updates (".ucode" section). Addons
allow those resources to be passed regardless of the kernel version being booted, for example allowing
platform vendors to ship platform-specific configuration.
In case Secure Boot is enabled, these files will be validated using keys in UEFI DB, Shim's DB or
Shim's MOK, and only loaded if the check passes. Additionally, if both the addon and the UKI contain a
".uname" section, the addon will be rejected if they do not match exactly. It is
recommended to always add a ".sbat" section to all signed addons, so that they may be
revoked with a SBAT policy update, without requiring blocklisting via DBX/MOKX. The
ukify(1) tool will add
a SBAT policy by default if none is passed when building addons. For more information on SBAT see
Shim documentation.
Addon files are sorted, loaded, and measured into TPM PCR 12 (if a TPM is present) and appended
to the kernel command line. UKI command line options are listed first, then options from addons in
/loader/addons/*.addon.efi, and finally UKI-specific addons. Device tree blobs are
loaded and measured following the same algorithm. Microcode addons are passed to the kernel in inverse
order (UKI specific addons, global addons, UKI embedded section). This is because the microcode update
driver stops on the first matching filename. Addons are always loaded in the same order based on
the filename, so that, given the same set of addons, the same set of measurements can be expected in
PCR12. However, note that the filename is not protected by the PE signature, and as such an attacker
with write access to the ESP could potentially rename these files to change the order in which they are
loaded, in a way that could alter the functionality of the kernel, as some options might be
order-dependent. If you sign such addons, you should pay attention to the PCR12 values and make use of
an attestation service so that improper use of your signed addons can be detected and dealt with using
one of the aforementioned revocation mechanisms.
Files /loader/credentials/*.cred are packed up in a
cpio archive and placed in the /.extra/global_credentials/
directory of the initrd file hierarchy. This is supposed to be used to pass additional credentials to
the initrd, regardless of the kernel version being booted. The generated cpio
archive is measured into TPM PCR 12 (if a TPM is present).
Additionally, files /loader/addons/*.addon.efi are loaded and
verified as PE binaries, and ".cmdline", ".dtb", and
".ucode" sections are parsed from them. This is supposed to be used to pass additional
command line parameters, DeviceTree blobs, and microcode updates to the kernel, regardless of the
kernel version being booted.
These mechanisms may be used to parameterize and extend trusted (i.e. signed), immutable initrd images in a reasonably safe way: all data they contain is measured into TPM PCRs. On access they should be further validated: in case of the credentials case by encrypting/authenticating them via TPM, as exposed by systemd-creds encrypt -T (see systemd-creds(1) for details); in case of the system extension images by using signed Verity images.
In many contexts it is useful to allow invocation of a single UKI in multiple different modes (or
"profiles") without compromising the cryptographic integrity, measurements and so on of the boot
process. For example, a single UKI might provide three distinct profiles: a regular boot one, one that
invokes a "factory reset" operation, and one that boots into a storage target mode (as in
systemd-storagetm.service(8)). Each
profile would then use the same ".linux" and ".initrd" sections, but would
have a separate ".cmdline" section. For example the latter two profiles would extend the
regular kernel command line with "systemd.unit=factory-reset.target" or
"rd.systemd.unit=storagetm.target".
A single UKI may support multiple profiles by means of the special ".profile" PE
section. This section acts as separator between the PE sections of the individual
profiles. ".profile" PE sections hence may appear multiple times in a single UKI, and
the other PE sections listed above may appear multiple times too, if ".profile" are
used, but only once before the first ".profile" section, once between each subsequent
pair, and once after the last appearance of ".profile". The sections listed before the
first ".profile" are considered the "base" profile of the UKI. Each
".profile" section then introduces a new profile, which are numbered starting from
zero. The PE sections following each ".profile" are specific to that profile. When
booting into a specific profile the base section's profiles are used in combination with the specific
profile's sections: if the same section is defined in both, the per-profile section overrides the base
profile's version, otherwise the per-profile sections is used together with the base profile
sections.
A UKI that contains no ".profile" is consider equivalent to one
that just contains a single ".profile", as having only a single profile @0.
Here's a simple example for a multi-profile UKI's sections, inspired by the setup suggested above:
Table 1. Multi-Profile UKI Example
| Section | Profile |
|---|---|
".linux" | Base profile |
".osrel" | |
".cmdline" | |
".initrd" | |
".profile" | Profile @0 |
".profile" | Profile @1 |
".cmdline" | |
".profile" | Profile @2 |
".cmdline" |
The section list above would define three profiles. The first four sections make up the base
profile. A ".profile" section then introduces profile @0. It doesn't override any
sections (or add any) from the base section, hence it is immediately followed by another
".profile" section that then introduces section @1. This profile overrides the kernel
command line. Finally, the last two sections define section @2, again overriding the command line. (Note
that in this example the first ".cmdline" could also moved behind the first
".profile" with equivalent effect. To keep things nicely extensible, it's probably a
good idea to keep the generic command line in the base section instead of profile 0, in case later added
profiles might want to reuse it.)
The profile to boot may be controlled via the UKI's own command line: if the first argument starts
with "@", followed by a positive integer number in decimal, it selects the profile to
boot into. If the first argument is not specified like that, the UKI will automatically boot into profile
0.
A ".profile" section may contain meta-information about the profile. It follows a
similar format as ".osrel" (i.e. an environment-variable-assignment-block-like list of
newline separated strings). Currently two fields are defined: "ID=" is supposed to carry
a short identifying string that identifies the profile
(e.g. "ID=factory-reset"). "TITLE=" should contain a human readable
string that may appear in the boot menu entry for this profile (e.g. "TITLE='Factory Reset this
Device'").
Note that when a unified kernel using systemd-stub is invoked the firmware will measure it as a whole to TPM PCR 4, covering all embedded resources, such as the stub code itself, the core kernel, the embedded initrd and kernel command line (see above for a full list), including all UKI profiles.
Also note that the Linux kernel will measure all initrds it receives into TPM PCR 9. This means every type of initrd (of the selected UKI profile) will possibly be measured two or three times: the initrds embedded in the kernel image will be measured to PCR 4, PCR 9 and PCR 11; the initrd synthesized from credentials (and the one synthesized from configuration extensions) will be measured to both PCR 9 and PCR 12; the initrd synthesized from system extensions will be measured to both PCR 4 and PCR 9. Let's summarize the OS resources and the PCRs they are measured to:
Table 2. OS Resource PCR Summary
| OS Resource | Measurement PCR |
|---|---|
| systemd-stub code (the entry point of the unified PE binary) | 4 |
| Core kernel code (embedded in unified PE binary) | 4 + 11 |
| OS release information (embedded in the unified PE binary) | 4 + 11 |
| Main initrd (embedded in unified PE binary) | 4 + 9 + 11 |
| Microcode initrd (embedded in unified PE binary) | 4 + 9 + 11 |
| Default kernel command line (embedded in unified PE binary) | 4 + 11 |
| Overridden kernel command line | 12 |
| Boot splash (embedded in the unified PE binary) | 4 + 11 |
| TPM2 PCR signature JSON (embedded in unified PE binary, synthesized into initrd) | 4 + 9 |
| TPM2 PCR PEM public key (embedded in unified PE binary, synthesized into initrd) | 4 + 9 + 11 |
| Credentials (synthesized initrd from companion files) | 9 + 12 |
| System Extensions (synthesized initrd from companion files) | 9 + 13 |
| Configuration Extensions (synthesized initrd from companion files) | 9 + 12 |
| Selected profile unless zero | 12 |
The following EFI variables are defined, set and read by systemd-stub, under the
vendor UUID "4a67b082-0a4c-41cf-b6c7-440b29bb8c4f", for communication between the boot
stub and the OS:
LoaderDevicePartUUID¶Contains the partition UUID of the partition the boot loader has been started from on the current boot (usually a EFI System Partition). If already set by the boot loader, this will remain untouched by systemd-stub. If not set yet, this will be set to the partition UUID of the partition the unified kernel is started from, in order to support systems that directly boot into a unified kernel image, bypassing any boot loader. systemd-gpt-auto-generator(8) uses this information to automatically find the disk booted from, in order to discover various other partitions on the same disk automatically.
LoaderFirmwareInfo, LoaderFirmwareType¶Brief firmware information. Use bootctl(1) to view this data.
LoaderImageIdentifier¶The file system path to the EFI executable of the boot loader for the current boot,
relative to the partition's root directory (i.e. relative to the partition indicated by
LoaderDevicePartUUID, see above). If not set yet, this will be set to the file
system path of the EFI executable of the booted unified kernel, in order to support systems that
directly boot into a unified kernel image, bypassing any boot loader. Use
bootctl(1) to view
this data.
StubDevicePartUUID, StubImageIdentifier¶Similar to LoaderDevicePartUUID and
StubImageIdentifier, but indicates the location of the unified kernel image EFI
binary rather than the location of the boot loader binary, regardless if booted via a boot loader
or not.
StubInfo¶Brief stub information. Use bootctl(1) to view this data.
StubPcrKernelImage¶The PCR register index the kernel image, initrd image, boot splash, devicetree
database, and the embedded command line are measured into, formatted as decimal ASCII string (e.g.
"11"). This variable is set if a measurement was successfully completed, and remains
unset otherwise.
StubPcrKernelParameters¶The PCR register index the kernel command line and credentials are measured into,
formatted as decimal ASCII string (e.g. "12"). This variable is set if a measurement
was successfully completed, and remains unset otherwise.
StubPcrInitRDSysExts¶The PCR register index the system extensions for the initrd, which are picked up from
the file system the kernel image is located on. Formatted as decimal ASCII string (e.g.
"13"). This variable is set if a measurement was successfully completed, and remains
unset otherwise.
StubPcrInitRDConfExts¶The PCR register index the configuration extensions for the initrd, which are picked
up from the file system the kernel image is located on. Formatted as decimal ASCII string (e.g.
"12"). This variable is set if a measurement was successfully completed, and remains
unset otherwise.
StubProfile¶The numeric index of the selected profile, without the "@",
formatted as decimal string. Set both on single-profile and multi-profile UKIs. (In the former case
this variable will be set to "0" unconditionally.)
Note that some of the variables above may also be set by the boot loader. The stub will only set them if they aren't set already. Some of these variables are defined by the Boot Loader Interface.
The following resources are passed as initrd cpio archives to the booted kernel, and thus make up the initial file system hierarchy in the initrd execution environment:
/¶The main initrd from the ".initrd" PE section of the unified kernel
image.
/.extra/credentials/*.cred¶Credential files (suffix ".cred") that are placed next to the
unified kernel image (as described above) are copied into the
/.extra/credentials/ directory in the initrd execution
environment.
/.extra/global_credentials/*.cred¶Similarly, credential files in the /loader/credentials/
directory in the file system the unified kernel image is placed in are copied into the
/.extra/global_credentials/ directory in the initrd execution
environment.
/.extra/sysext/*.sysext.raw¶System extension image files (suffix ".sysext.raw") that are placed
next to the unified kernel image (as described above) are copied into the
/.extra/sysext/ directory in the initrd execution environment.
/.extra/confext/*.confext.raw¶Configuration extension image files (suffix ".confext.raw") that are
placed next to the unified kernel image (as described above) are copied into the
/.extra/confext/ directory in the initrd execution environment.
/.extra/tpm2-pcr-signature.json¶The TPM2 PCR signature JSON object included in the ".pcrsig" PE
section of the unified kernel image is copied into the
/.extra/tpm2-pcr-signature.json file in the initrd execution environment.
/.extra/tpm2-pcr-public-key.pem¶The PEM public key included in the ".pcrpkey" PE section of the
unified kernel image is copied into the /.extra/tpm2-pcr-public-key.pem file in
the initrd execution environment.
/.extra/profile, /.extra/os-release¶The contents of the ".profile" and ".osrel"
sections of the selected profile, if any.
Note that all these files are located in the "tmpfs" file system the kernel sets
up for the initrd file hierarchy and are thus lost when the system transitions from the initrd execution
environment into the host file system. If these resources shall be kept around over this transition they
need to be copied to a place that survives the transition first, for example via a suitable
tmpfiles.d(5) line. By
default, this is done for the TPM2 PCR signature and public key files.
systemd-stub can be configured using SMBIOS Type 11 strings. Applicable strings
consist of a name, followed by "=", followed by the value. Unless
systemd-stub detects it is running inside a confidential computing environment,
systemd-stub will search the table for a string with a specific name, and if found,
use its value. The following strings are read:
io.systemd.stub.kernel-cmdline-extra¶If set, the value of this string is added to the list of kernel command line arguments that are measured in PCR12 and passed to the kernel.