[U-Boot] AES: Encryption of u-boot.img

bin4ry 0xbin4ry at gmail.com
Mon Sep 30 09:51:54 CEST 2013


Hi Albert,

so if I get you right the workflow for payload authentication is the
following:

Encryption process:

1. Create hash value H for u-boot.img
2. Encrypt the hash value H with secret K to get encrypted hash values H_enc
3. Store H_enc

Decryption process:

1. Read H_enc
2. Decrypt H_enc using secret K to get plain hash values H
3. Create Hash values H' of u-boot.img
4. Compare H and H'

Did I get you right?

Thanks and best regards,
-b

Am 15.09.2013 08:08, schrieb Albert ARIBAUD:
> What's the point of encrypting the whole binary? Secure boot usually
> uses authentication, not encryption, of the payload that is to be
> secured: instead of decrypting several hundreds of KBs, you hash them
> (which is faster) and decrypt only the few hundreds bits of the
> encrypted hash in order to compare both hashes (but trust chain remains
> the same of course).
>
> Note: if you chose payload encryption over authentication (hash
> encryption) because you are worried about collision, preimage or even
> second preimage resistance, then you should just go with use a stronger
> hash function. Besides, for a small and compact payload such as a
> bootloader, the risks of collisions are reduced because there is less
> room in the input space.
>
> Amicalement,



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