[MIR] nullboot
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
nullboot (Ubuntu) |
In Progress
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned |
Bug Description
[Availability]
nullboot is available in jammy universe on amd64 and arm64, which are the only architectures we care about it for the foreseeable future
It currently builds and works for architetcures: arm64
Link to package https:/
[Rationale]
nullboot is required for enabling a partner cloud offering with linux-azure-fde
[Security]
nullboot is a new software produced by Canonical. It produces a Go binary that measures boot binaries and does some sealing, to allow automatic full disk encryption. It only operates on trusted data (firmware data and kernels in /usr/lib/
- no `suid` or `sgid` binaries
- no executables in `/sbin` and `/usr/sbin`
- Package does not install services, timers or recurring jobs
- Package does install a dpkg trigger on /usr/lib/linux/efi
- Packages does not open privileged ports (ports < 1024)
- Packages does not contain extensions to security-sensitive software
[Quality assurance - function/usage]
This package is not usable on its own, it needs a kernel.efi package to be installed such as linux-azure-fde. It requires a TPM.
[Quality assurance - maintenance]
Foundations maintains this software
[Quality assurance - testing]
The test suite run at build time covers about 80% of the code. The code was mostly developed using a test-driven development approach, including abstractions of file system and EFI variables to allow for extensive testing.
ok github.
The same test suite is run as an autopkgtest. End-to-end testing should be done by consumers of nullboot such as linux-azure-fde, but is very involved as it needs to happen in a qemu with tpm setup and stuff, so it might not happen.
[Quality assurance - packaging]
Lintian is a bit overly protective, but
W: nullboot-dbgsym: elf-error In program headers: Unable to find program interpreter name [usr/lib/
W: nullboot: hardening-no-pie [usr/bin/
^- Go toolchain worries
W: nullboot: no-manual-page usr/bin/nullbootctl
^- maybe it would be nicer to have it live in usr/libexec, I don't know.
W: nullboot: unknown-field Important
W: nullboot: unknown-field Protected
^- these are to be expected.
- Lintian overrides are not present
- debian/watch is not present because it is anative package
- This package does not rely on obsolete or about to be demoted packages.
- This package has no python2 or GTK2 dependencies
- The package will be installed by default, but does not ask debconf
questions higher than medium (no questions, installed only on select cloud images)
- Packaging and build is easy, https:/
[UI standards]
- Application is not end-user facing (does not need translation)
Application is not _exactly_ end user interfacing, and certainly does not have translations. It runs as part of triggers when select kernel packages are installed and might log some messages there.
[Dependencies]
- No further depends or recommends dependencies that are not yet in main
[Standards compliance]
- This package violates Debian Policy, it vendorizes various Go libraries (in a orig-vendor.tar.gz)
[Maintenance/Owner]
- Owning Team will be Foundations
- Team is not yet, but will subscribe to the package before promotion
- The team Foundations is aware of the implications by a static build and
commits to test no-change-rebuilds and to fix any issues found for the
- The team Foundations is aware of the implications of vendored code and (as
alerted by the security team) commits to provide updates to the security
team for any affected vendored code for the lifetime of the release
(including ESM).
[Background information]
The upstream nullboot project and packaging branches are located at https:/
description: | updated |
description: | updated |
Changed in nullboot (Ubuntu): | |
assignee: | nobody → Ioanna Alifieraki (joalif) |
tags: | added: sec-976 |
Review for Package: nullboot
[Summary] linux/efi) .
nullboot is a boot manager for environments that do not need a boot manager.
Instead of running a boot manager at boot, it directly manages the UEFI boot entries for you.
It produces a Go binary that measures boot binaries and does some sealing,
to allow automatic full disk encryption.
It only operates on trusted data (firmware data and kernels in /usr/lib/
MIR team ACK
This does need a security review, so I'll assign ubuntu-security (package deals with security attestation)
List of specific binary packages to be promoted to main: nullboot_ 0.3.0-0ubuntu1_ amd64
Notes:
Recommended TODOs:
1. It would be nice to have a test plan for end-to-end testing.
- The package should get a team bug subscriber before being promoted
[Duplication]
- There is no other package in main providing the same functionality.
[Dependencies]
OK:
- no other Dependencies to MIR due to this
- checked with check-mir
- not listed in seeded-in-ubuntu
- none of the (potentially auto-generated) dependencies (Depends
and Recommends) that are present after build are not in main
- no -dev/-debug/-doc packages that need exclusion
- No dependencies in main that are only superficially tested requiring
more tests now.
Problems: None
[Embedded sources and static linking]
OK:
- does not have odd Built-Using entries
- Go Package that follows the Debian Go packaging guidelines
- vendoring is used, but the reasoning is sufficiently explained
- golang: static builds are used, the team confirmed their commitment
to the additional responsibilities implied by static builds.
Problems: None
[Security]
OK:
- history of CVEs does not look concerning
- does not run a daemon as root
- does not use webkit1,2
- does not use lib*v8 directly
- does not parse data formats
- does not open a port/socket
- does not process arbitrary web content
- does not use centralized online accounts
- does not integrate arbitrary javascript into the desktop
- does not deal with system authentication (eg, pam), etc)
Problems:
- does deal with security attestation (secure boot, tpm, signatures)
[Common blockers]
OK:
- does not FTBFS currently
- does have a test suite that runs at build time
- test suite fails will fail the build upon error.
- does have a non-trivial test suite that runs as autopkgtest
- no new python2 dependency
- Go package, but using dh-golang
Problems: None
[Packaging red flags]
OK:
- Ubuntu does not carry a delta
- symbols tracking not applicable for this kind of code.
- d/watch is present and looks ok (if needed, e.g. non-native)
- Upstream update history is good
- Debian/Ubuntu update history is good
- the current release is packaged
- promoting this does not seem to cause issues for MOTUs that so far
maintained the package
- no massive Lintian warnings
- d/rules is rather clean
- It is not on the lto-disabled list
Problems: None
[Upstream red flags]
OK:
- no Errors/warnings during the build
- no incautious use of malloc/sprintf (as far as we can check it)
- no use of sudo, gksu, pkexec, or LD_LIBRARY_PATH (usage is OK inside
tests)
- no use of user nobody
- no use of setuid
- no important open bugs...