[PATCH v11 9/9] ima: measure kexec load and exec events as critical data

Mimi Zohar zohar at linux.ibm.com
Tue Apr 8 09:31:22 PDT 2025


On Wed, 2025-04-02 at 05:47 -0700, steven chen wrote:
> The amount of memory allocated at kexec load, even with the extra memory
> allocated, might not be large enough for the entire measurement list.  The
> indeterminate interval between kexec 'load' and 'execute' could exacerbate
> this problem.
> 
> Define two new IMA events, 'kexec_load' and 'kexec_execute', to be 
> measured as critical data at kexec 'load' and 'execute' respectively.
> Report the allocated kexec segment size, IMA binary log size and the
> runtime measurements count as part of those events.
> 
> These events, and the values reported through them, serve as markers in
> the IMA log to verify the IMA events are captured during kexec soft
> reboot.  The presence of a 'kexec_load' event in between the last two
> 'boot_aggregate' events in the IMA log implies this is a kexec soft
> reboot, and not a cold-boot. And the absence of 'kexec_execute' event
> after kexec soft reboot implies missing events in that window which
> results in inconsistency with TPM PCR quotes, necessitating a cold boot
> for a successful remote attestation.
> 
> These critical data events are displayed as hex encoded ascii in the
> ascii_runtime_measurement_list.  Verifying the critical data hash requires 
> calculating the hash of the decoded ascii string.  
> 
> For example, to verify the 'kexec_load' data hash:
> 
> sudo cat /sys/kernel/security/integrity/ima/ascii_runtime_measurements 
> > grep  kexec_load | cut -d' ' -f 6 | xxd -r -p | sha256sum
> 
> 
> To verify the 'kexec_execute' data hash:
> 
> sudo cat /sys/kernel/security/integrity/ima/ascii_runtime_measurements 
> > grep kexec_execute | cut -d' ' -f 6 | xxd -r -p | sha256sum
> 
> Signed-off-by: Tushar Sugandhi <tusharsu at linux.microsoft.com>
> Signed-off-by: steven chen <chenste at linux.microsoft.com>
> Reviewed-by: Stefan Berger <stefanb at linux.ibm.com>

Thanks, Steven. 

Reviewed-by: Mimi Zohar <zohar at linux.ibm.com>




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