[LinuxBIOS] SMM in LinuxBIOS

[Carl-Daniel Hailfinger]

Hi Arvind,

Arvind Seshadri wrote:
> Pioneer provides the stronger guarantee that the program whose integrity
> is checked is the one that is invoked for execution. In other words, an
> attacker cannot modify the program between the time its integrity is
> checked and the time the program is invoked for execution. Also, where as

But an attacker can modify the program directly after its execution has
started. So Pioneer secures exactly one machine instruction more than
SEBOS. I don't think that this is impressive. With current hardware it
is impossible (except if you use an IOMMU) to guarantee that a program
is not modified during execution.
I hope I didn't discuorage you and am still very interested in the
results of Pioneer.

> AEGIS and TCG only measure programs loaded at system boot, Pioneer can
> measure and launch programs at any point in time. The property provided by
> Pioneer is, therefore, similar to the late-launch capability of Intel's LT
> and AMD's SVM, which can be used to design systems with substantially
> smaller trusted computing bases than AEGIS and TCG. Unlike LT and SVM
> however, Pioneer is completely software-based and can be used on legacy
> systems.

Only on legacy systems with LinuxBIOS or on all legacy systems?

Regards,
Carl-Daniel