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Introduction
This is another year in which, together with Daniel Kiper from Oracle, we have the pleasure to organize Open Source Firmware, BMC and Bootloader devroom during FOSDEM 2021 as a continuation of this devroom of the previous edition. We take part in this event to promote the use of free and open source software, and show how it can increase security and the quality of the code itself and give more business freedom outside of the vendors lock-in, from the point of the firmware level which is our bread and butter in 3mdeb. In this blogpost we will gather all the information about the event and links to the videos from the FOSDEM 2020.
FOSDEM is a free event for software developers to meet, share ideas and collaborate. Every year, thousands of developers of free and open source software from all over the world gather at the event in Brussels. In 2021, they will gather online.
Why Open source
Before diving into the technical information around FOSDEM, let’s make a step back and refresh the ground knowledge that made us choose the Open Source path as users, contributors, developers, supporters – OSS community members.
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Open source builds trust in the features and quality of the software. If the company wants to start developing OS project, it needs to check its quality. The published code’s quality can be easily scanned by having full insight into the source code.
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Developers are building a visible portfolio by contributing to the Open Source project. The company that decided to develop a particular project is more eager to hire contributors with proven expertise.
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The company can get improved performance for a relatively short amount of time. Having open-source repository allows to prove the competencies and gain trust without any additional audit or checks.
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The source code has no value itself. Most of the products are made by modifying existing code components, so technology knowledge that allows performing on the ready-to-use code in the proposed business model brings the essential value. There are some exceptions to that like very innovative and research base solutions or fully-featured systems, which secrecy may build value that owners do not want to give to the community using OSS license.
It is significant that companies are increasingly switching to using and publishing open source software due to the reasons mentioned above. So having it in mind, let’s have a look into event details below.
Where to link the event?
- To participate, no registration is needed. Check the schedule and choose the talks you would take part in. We are in D.firmware room.
- Find the live streaming for a D.firmware here. The page will be updated every few minutes to show you what is currently scheduled in each room.
How we are proceeding this year
This online event will take place on 6 & 7 February 2021. Here you will find the full schedule. The below points will be updated with recordings after the event.
February 6 2021
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Open Source Firmware status on AMD platforms 2021 by Piotr Król
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OpenBMC introduction and porting guide by Saravanan Palanisamy
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Building an interactive Continuous Integration platform for Open Source Firmware by Jean-Marie Verdun
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How to build up an ecosystem for open-source firmware testing by Christian Walter
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Improving the Secure Boot landscape: sbctl & go-uefi by Morten Linderund
February 7 2021
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Open Source Firmware Status on Ampere ARM64 Platforms by Arjun Khare
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Secure boot without UEFI: booting VMs on Power(PC) by Daniel Axtens
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Open source PMCI stack implementation for add-in-card manageability. by sumanthbhatt
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Using OpenSPDM in Firmware as a Foundation for Secure Device Communication by Jiewen Yao, and xiaoyuruan
3mdeb on FOSDEM 2020
Previous year, together with Daniel Kiper from Oracle, GRUB, we similarly created Open Source Firmware, BMC and Bootloader devroom that became a great success. Let’s take a small glimpse on what was presented there. The schedule with the full description of the all presented talks you will find here
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Heads OEM device ownership/reownership : A tamper evident approach to remote integrity attestation by Thierry Laurion
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Improving the Security of Edge Computing Services Update status of the support for AMD and Intel processors by Daniel Kiper and Piotr Król
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Introducing AUTOREV. An automatic reverse-engineering framework for firmware BLOBs by Patrick Rudolph
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Look at ME! Intel ME firmware investigation by Daniel Maslowski (CyReVolt)
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Capsule Update & LVFS: Improving system firmware updates by Brian Richardson
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Opening Intel Server firmware based on OpenBMC example by Maciej Lawniczak and Przemyslaw Czarnowski
Summary
If you think we can help in improving the security of your firmware or you
looking for someone who can boost your product by leveraging advanced features
of used hardware platform, feel free to
book a call with us or
drop us email to contact<at>3mdeb<dot>com. If you are interested in similar
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