Home | History | Annotate | Download | only in verifiedboot
      1 page.title=Verified Boot
      2 @jd:body
      3 
      4 <!--
      5     Copyright 2015 The Android Open Source Project
      6 
      7     Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
      8     you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
      9     You may obtain a copy of the License at
     10 
     11         http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
     12 
     13     Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
     14     distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
     15     WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
     16     See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
     17     limitations under the License.
     18 -->
     19 <div id="qv-wrapper">
     20   <div id="qv">
     21     <h2>In this document</h2>
     22     <ol id="auto-toc">
     23     </ol>
     24   </div>
     25 </div>
     26 
     27 <p>Android 4.4 and later supports verified boot through the optional
     28 device-mapper-verity (dm-verity) kernel feature, which provides transparent
     29 integrity checking of block devices. dm-verity helps prevent persistent rootkits
     30 that can hold onto root privileges and compromise devices. This
     31 feature helps Android users be sure when booting a device it is in the same
     32 state as when it was last used.</p>
     33 
     34 <p>Clever malware with root privileges can hide from detection programs and
     35 otherwise mask themselves. The rooting software can do this because it is often
     36 more privileged than the detectors, enabling the software to "lie" to the
     37 detection programs.</p>
     38 
     39 <p>The dm-verity feature lets you look at a block device, the underlying storage
     40 layer of the file system, and determine if it matches its expected
     41 configuration. It does this using a cryptographic hash tree. For every block
     42 (typically 4k), there is a SHA256 hash.</p>
     43 
     44 <p>Because the hash values are stored in a tree of pages, only the top-level
     45 "root" hash must be trusted to verify the rest of the tree. The ability to
     46 modify any of the blocks would be equivalent to breaking the cryptographic hash.
     47 See the following diagram for a depiction of this structure.</p>
     48 
     49 <img src="../images/dm-verity-hash-table.png" alt="dm-verity-hash-table" id="figure1"/>
     50 <p class="img-caption">
     51   <strong>Figure 1.</strong> dm-verity hash table
     52 </p>
     53 
     54 <p>A public key is included on the boot partition, which must be verified
     55 externally by the OEM. That key is used to verify the signature for that hash
     56 and confirm the device's system partition is protected and unchanged.</p>
     57 
     58 <h2 id="prerequisites">Prerequisites</h2>
     59 
     60 <h3 id="verified-boot">Establishing a verified boot flow</h3>
     61 <p>To greatly reduce the risk of compromise, verify the kernel using a key
     62 burned into the device. For details, see <a href="verified-boot.html">Verifying
     63 boot</a>.</p>
     64 
     65 <h3 id="block-otas">Switching to block-oriented OTAs</h3>
     66 <p>To enable dm-verity for a device, you must use block-based over-the-air
     67 (OTA) updates to ensure all devices use the same system partition. For details,
     68 see <a href="{@docRoot}devices/tech/ota/block.html">Block-Based OTAs</a>.</p>
     69 
     70 <h3 id="config-dm-verity">Configuring dm-verity</h3>
     71 
     72 <p>After switching to block-oriented OTAs, incorporate the latest Android kernel
     73 or use a stock upstream kernel and enable dm-verity support by including the
     74 relevant configuration option <code>CONFIG_DM_VERITY</code>.</p>
     75 
     76 <p>When using the Android kernel, dm-verity is turned on when the kernel is
     77 built. For details, see <a href="dm-verity.html">Implementing dm-verity</a>.</p>
     78 
     79 <h2 id="supporting-docs">Supporting documentation</h2>
     80 <p><a href="verified-boot.html">Verifying Boot</a><br/>
     81 <a href="{@docRoot}devices/tech/ota/block.html">Block-Based OTA</a><br/>
     82 <a href="dm-verity.html">Implementing dm-verity</a><br/>
     83 <a href="https://gitlab.com/cryptsetup/cryptsetup/wikis/DMVerity">cryptsetup -
     84 dm-verity: device-mapper block integrity checking target</a><br/>
     85 <a href="http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/verified-boot">The
     86 Chromium Projects - Verified Boot</a><br/>
     87 <a
     88 href="http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=blob;f=Documentation/device-mapper/verity.txt">Linux Kernel Documentation: verity.txt</a></p>
     89