Thoughts dereferenced from the scratchpad noise.

coreboot port for OpenPOWER - why bother?

Published at December 31, 2020 · Krystian Hebel · 9 min read

You may have heard by now that we are working on coreboot port for Talos II. OpenPOWER already has, nomen omen, open source firmware, so one may ask why bother? We will try to answer that question....

Categories: firmware

Thoughts around OSFC 2020 – day 1

Published at December 21, 2020 · Kamila Banecka · Piotr Król · 6 min read

Lets share some thoughts that evolved during the OSFC 2020 talks and send kudos to many people who made this conference happen....

Categories: firmware security

Containerization of the test environment for embedded systems

Published at December 17, 2020 · Mateusz Grzelak · 9 min read

Using Docker makes life much easier for developers. It allows us to build lightweight and portable software containers that simplify application development. In this article, we present the advantages of using Docker for embedded testing...

Categories: firmware

Proof of concept implementation of RATS attestation for the TrenchBoot

Published at December 14, 2020 · Norbert Kamiński · 9 min read

This blog post will describe the concept of the IETF Remote Attestation Procedures (RATS) and implementation of CHAllenge-Response based Remote Attestation (CHARRA) with TPM 2.0 for TrenchBoot....

Categories: firmware security

Building coreboot for RISC-V and running it in Qemu

Published at November 18, 2020 · Wojciech Niewiadomski · 4 min read

In this article, I will briefly explain what is RISC-V and why it is so exciting, then I`ll show you step by step how to build coreboot for this architecture and run it in QEMU emulator...

Categories: firmware miscellaneous

Application Security as an Every Developer's Responsibility

Published at November 13, 2020 · Piotr Nowosławski · 7 min read

The issue of web application security is becoming more and more popular. Currently, not only large organizations and corporations but also smaller businesses are forced by progress to transfer some of their activities to the Internet....

Categories: app-dev development security

GRUB mini–summit 2020

Published at November 2, 2020 · Kamila Banecka · 5 min read

GRUB mini–summit 2020. This year we cannot miss this opportunity to meet again and face the new challenges of GRUB/GRUB2. So,dear reader, feel invited to look at GRUB with a magnifying glass....

Categories: firmware os-dev security

Minimal Image, Fastest Rpi, Quick Tutorial

Published at October 30, 2020 · Paweł Zaborny · Jakub Łęcki · 7 min read

What has changed since the previous raspberry pi version? We will dive into huge changes and check how it cooperates with Yocto....

Categories: iot

Trenchboot: Xen hypervisor support for the TrenchBoot

Published at October 15, 2020 · Norbert Kamiński · Marek Kasiewicz · 4 min read

In this blog post, we will describe the development of the Xen hypervisor support for TrenchBoot....

Categories: firmware security

What features PCIe has?

Published at October 8, 2020 · Marek Kasiewicz · 7 min read

Introductory blog post to PCIe features. In this article you can read what PCIe capability is and see examples of such capabilities....

Categories: firmware

Latency - The most crucial aspect of real-time systems.

Published at September 30, 2020 · Jakub Łęcki · 4 min read

What in reality is RT system? This post will explain what to expect from Real-Time systems and how can we test performance in this kind of builds....

Categories: firmware iot os-dev

Raspberry Pi and Docker for your home's entertainment and work.

Published at September 23, 2020 · Dawid Zębacki · 9 min read

Have you ever been trying to automate something at home or at work? Here it comes for the rescue Raspberry Pi working with Docker! With these tools, you can create a lot of projects with small effort....

Categories: app-dev firmware iot miscellaneous

Reasonably secure way to update your system firmware

Published at September 18, 2020 · Norbert Kamiński · 3 min read

As you may know from the previous blog post, the qubes-fwupd is the wrapper that allows you to update the firmware of your devices in the Qubes OS. This time I will briefly describe the new features, whereby you will securely update your system firmware....

Categories: firmware os-dev security

TrenchBoot: Open Source DRTM. Multiboot2 support.

Published at September 7, 2020 · Krystian Hebel · 11 min read

This month we will show that not only Linux kernel can be started by TrenchBoot. We also did some drastic changes to the bootloader data format, so if you try to redo some older posts in the future and they do not seem to work, this is probably the place to look for hints....

Categories: firmware security

3mdeb contribution 2020'Q2

Published at September 3, 2020 · Kamila Banecka · 4 min read

The second post on 3mdeb contribution summary! The second quarter of 2020 has brought new merged patches. Check the samples of code that we successfully contributed and feel free to use them in your own projects....

Categories: miscellaneous

Booting coreboot on Intel Comet Lake S RVP8

Published at August 31, 2020 · Michał Żygowski · 10 min read

This blog post shows the procedure of building coreboot for a Comet Lake S platform. Also it describes problems occurred when building and booting the image. As a bonus, few tips and tricks will be shown how to fix/workaround these kind of problems....

Categories: firmware security

Case study - debugging race condition in golang

Published at August 19, 2020 · Igor Bagnucki · 5 min read

In this article, we analyze different approaches to debugging race conditions based on the case study. The most intuitive approach can work, but in reality, there may be better ways to find and fix the problem....

Categories: app-dev

TrenchBoot: Open Source DRTM. TPM event log all the way.

Published at August 13, 2020 · Krystian Hebel · 12 min read

We extended the TPM event log support to the Linux kernel. It is now possible to print all of the PCR extend operations performed and compare the hashes with files to see if anything is wrong....

Categories: firmware security

coreboot Fundamentals Training

Published at August 9, 2020 · Kamila Banecka · 4 min read

coreboot Fundamentals Training is the first step of 3mdeb Firmware Training path. It provides solid grounds for further development towards proficiency in coreboot firmware platform enginering. With this blogpost we are starting coreboot fundamentals mini-course....

Categories: firmware miscellaneous

Secure Application – Best coding practices

Published at July 23, 2020 · Malwina Mika · 7 min read

When building an application, we must assume that it will be exposed to attackers at all times and may be misused by ordinary recipients. The danger of the first group seems obvious, but what kind of risk a standard user brings?...

Categories: app-dev development security

Project status of the fwupd/LVFS support for Qubes OS

Published at July 14, 2020 · Norbert Kamiński · 5 min read

During the QubesOS minisummit, I have presented the initial status of the fwupd/LVFS support for the Qubes OS. Now it is time to share some more information about the progress....

Categories: firmware os-dev security

DEV and IOMMU: a story of two DMA protection mechanisms

Published at July 3, 2020 · Krystian Hebel · 12 min read

Both DEV and IOMMU can help with protection against malicious DMA. This post roughly describes the difference between those two, as well as the impact they have on each other in the context of TrenchBoot...

Categories: firmware security

TrenchBoot: Open Source DRTM. GRUB's new features and TPM event log.

Published at July 3, 2020 · Piotr Kleinschmidt · 16 min read

This blog post will show you what features we have added to GRUB and why they are useful from user's point of view. Also, there will be shown how to utilize TPM event logs and hence debug DRTM....

Categories: firmware security

Dell OptiPlex and coreboot - a story about porting cursed hardware (part 1)

Published at June 24, 2020 · Michał Żygowski · 7 min read

This post begins a new series telling a story of a stubborn firmware engineer who overcame never-ending amount of obstacles to create a Dell OptiPlex 9010 workstation as open as possible. In this series, you will not only read about the adventures which accompanied the work on the hardware but also you will have a chance to learn the way of BIOS developer....

Categories: firmware

Qubes OS & 3mdeb 'minisummit' 2020 summation

Published at June 17, 2020 · Kamila Banecka · 8 min read

The second Qubes OS & 3mdeb minisummit is ahead of us. We had gone through four evenings of topics devoted to Qubes OS, so it is time for broad summation of the event....

Categories: firmware miscellaneous security

Starting TrenchBoot's Landing Zone from iPXE

Published at June 1, 2020 · Krystian Hebel · 10 min read

In this article we present support for starting Landing Zone from another bootloader: iPXE. It may not be as featureful as GRUB2, but it has enough juice to start DRTM using images obtained from a remote server...

Categories: firmware security

Qubes OS and 3mdeb 'minisummit' 2020

Published at May 15, 2020 · Kamila Banecka · 5 min read

Once again, we will meet on QubesOs & 3mdeb minisummit 2020 discussing #QubesOS, #firmware, #coreboot, #security and #TPM related topics. All the event details are presented in the following blog post....

Categories: firmware miscellaneous security

Measuring memory and CPU usage on Orange Pi with Yocto & Armbian

Published at May 14, 2020 · Piotr Konkol · 6 min read

This article will show you how to perform and interpret measurements CPU usage, temperature and memory on OrangePi Zero...

Categories: iot miscellaneous

Installing TrenchBoot in UEFI environments

Published at May 6, 2020 · Michał Żygowski · 17 min read

This blog post will show you how to install NixOS on UEFI platforms and how to install TrenchBoot on them....

Categories: firmware os-dev security

User friendly tutorial for enabling HTTPS support in iPXE

Published at May 6, 2020 · Michał Żygowski · 5 min read

This article will show you how to replace old HTTP with much safer HTTPS when booting platforms/computers over network. You will read how to quickly incorporate open-source network booting solution based on coreboot and iPXE projects to your daily life....

Categories: coreboot firmware security

TrenchBoot: Open Source DRTM. CI/CD system.

Published at May 5, 2020 · Piotr Kleinschmidt · 6 min read

How to improve development and validation process in our project? Automation? Of course! Let us introduce our CI/CD system. Find out how it actually works and what advantages it has....

Categories: firmware security

TrenchBoot: Open Source DRTM. DRTM update and meta-trenchboot implementation

Published at April 30, 2020 · Piotr Kleinschmidt · 11 min read

Another release brings new updates in our Open Source DRTM project. Except for code changes, we have prepared our custom Linux image with DRTM. Also we set up CI/CD system for automation build and test. Read this article if you want to find out more details....

Categories: firmware security

Tools and ideas that keep us behind the wheel while working remotely.

Published at April 28, 2020 · Kamila Banecka · 4 min read

Remote working has different game rules than office. In this post I will present you how our team deals with the current situation and what tools help us to manage effectively....

Categories: miscellaneous

HummingBoard Pulse with Yocto and Buildroot

Published at April 24, 2020 · Cezary Sobczak · 29 min read

In this article, I will show you how to build and run the image from Yocto Project and SolidRun at HummingBoard Pulse. Furthermore, you can find here examples of which tools and configurations were used....

Categories: miscellaneous os-dev

3mdeb contribution 2020'Q1 - coreboot ports all over the place.

Published at April 16, 2020 · Artur Raglis · 6 min read

The starter of the new series - 3mdeb contribution summary! First quarter of 2020 brings many new merged patches. Check the samples of code that we successfully contributed and feel free to use them in your own projects....

Categories: miscellaneous

TrenchBoot: Open Source DRTM. Landing Zone validation.

Published at April 3, 2020 · Piotr Kleinschmidt · 25 min read

When you already know what is TrenchBoot, what is DRTM and how we enable it on AMD processors, we can move on to practice. I will show you how to configure all components and verify first of project's requirements....

Categories: firmware security

TrenchBoot - Open Source DRTM for AMD processors. Project's basics.

Published at March 31, 2020 · Piotr Kleinschmidt · 11 min read

This is the first blog post of TrenchBoot series. It will introduce you to the project, its structure and environment. Additionally the reader will find out more about each component, how to setup the environment and configure the build....

Categories: firmware security

Open Source DRTM with TrenchBoot for AMD processors. Introduction.

Published at March 28, 2020 · Piotr Kleinschmidt · 4 min read

This article starts an entire series of articles related to title project. By reading this blog post, you will find out why we have started such project and who is supporting us. Also, we bring you closer to main concept and goals....

Categories: firmware security

Trying to fix ESXi 6.7.0 boot issue, part one

Published at March 4, 2020 · Krystian Hebel · 14 min read

First mentions that updated versions of VMware's ESXi 6.7.0 installer doesn't start on PC Engines platforms come from the beginning of 2019. Older versions of ESXi worked fine. 'Shutting down firmware services...' is the last line printed before hang or reboot....

Categories: firmware os-dev

Boot Guard - pre-execution firmware verification on Protectli FW6

Published at February 21, 2020 · Michał Żygowski · 9 min read

This post will not describe how to guard your shoes. However, will definitely introduce you to Boot Guard feature present on Intel processors which allows firmware verification before the first instruction executes. One may call it pre-execution firmware verification. The post will also show you how Boot Guard can work well with coreboot based firmware on an example of Protectli FW6....

Categories: firmware security

GRUB2 and 3mdeb minisummit 2019

Published at February 19, 2020 · Piotr Król · 7 min read

In December 2019 we had pleasure to meet Daniel Kiper #GRUB2 maintanaer in 3mdeb office in Gdańsk. We discussed various #GRUB2, #Xen, #firmware, #coreboot, #security and #TPM related topics. Results of that "minisummit" was presented in following blog post in form of presentations and videos....

Categories: firmware os-dev security

Easy way to stay secure - XEN on the PC Engines apu2

Published at February 5, 2020 · Norbert Kamiński · 3 min read

Xen Project creates a software system that allows the execution of multiple virtual guest operating systems simultaneously on a single physical machine. In this case, it is a PC Engines apu2 platform....

Categories: manufacturing os-dev security

VMX exit reasons and handlers

Published at January 23, 2020 · Krystian Hebel · 14 min read

After long break, this is the third post in the hypervisor series. We will see how VMX helps with virtualization of restricted instructions and how Bareflank allows for implementation of handlers for them. At the end we will show how to write and add our own handler....

Categories: firmware

How L4 Genode hypervisor stands against proprietary RTOS solution

Published at January 10, 2020 · Krystian Hebel · 5 min read

A microkernel is a minimal computer operating system kernel which provides no operating system services at all, only the mechanisms needed to implement such services. A concept is tolerated inside the μ-kernel only if moving it outside the kernel would prevent the implementation of the system’s required functionality. In this article we will show our considerations on using L4 microkernels on VM....

Categories: os-dev

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