Re: [PATCH] x86/efi: pull NV+BS variables out before we exit bootservices

From: James Bottomley
Date: Tue Mar 19 2013 - 13:17:38 EST


On Tue, 2013-03-19 at 16:35 +0000, Matthew Garrett wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 08:14:45AM +0000, James Bottomley wrote:
>
> > Any security assumptions that rely on inability to read certain
> > information aren't really going to be that secure. Inability to modify,
> > sure, but inability to read, not really.
>
> Well, I guess that's public/private key cryptography screwed.

Well, OK, it's ex-BIOS writers we're dealing with, so I won't say no-one
would be stupid enough to come up with a security scheme embedding
Private Keys in BS+NV variables, but I would have thought the fact that
Linux would blow the lid off it might be a good incentive not to do it
and thus a plus point for this patch.

James


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