secure boot, mkimage with external signing server

Rosenschild, Klaus Klaus.Rosenschild at hilti.com
Mon Jan 20 18:43:19 CET 2025


Hello,
I have a question regarding the signing of a FIT image using mkimage. I already contacted DENX, they referred me to this mailing list.

mkimage supports the creation of a signed FIT image. To do this, we need to have an appropriate .its file and pass the private key as a parameter to the mkimage command:
mkimage -f fitImage-sign.its -k keys/  fitImage-signed

However, this approach does not work in our setup, as we do not have access to the private key.
The private key resides on an HSM (Hardware security module) that is not directly accessible for us. We can invoke signing related functions via an external signing server that takes a sha256 hash as input and returns the signed hash.
Then we need to add the signed hash to the FIT image.

The replacement of a signature in a FIT image can be easily done using the FDT library.
However, getting the sha256 hash that mkimage uses for the signing does not seems to be possible. I tried to reverse engineer the code, but it looks like that there are a lot of low level byte operations on the FIT image.
Now my questions:
Is there a way to get the SHA256 used for the signing somehow from the mkimage or via a different way?
Is there somewhere a documentation how this hash is generated from the unsigned FIT image ?

Any help is very much appreciated.

Some more details below

Our system runs on a raspberry pi CM 4 module. We use Yocto scarthgap to build the SW images.
The raspberry bootloader loads the U-boot which then boots the further system using a fit image.
We need to support secure boot for this platform. As part of it, we need to have a signed fit image.
Currently, we achieve this using the mkimage tool with the -k option to pass the private key. Via this procedure we are able to execute the secure boot successfully.
However, our organization requires to use a dedicated signing server that implements an organization wide security infrastructure.
It requires a hash (sha256) as input and returns a signature that is generated using the private key inside the signing server.
Our challenges are now:

  1.  Get the hashes that mkimage uses as a base for the signatures
  2.  Manipulate the fit image to include the configuration signatures
The attachments may provide further details.

Thank you very much and Regards

Klaus Rosenschild
IoT solution architect
OP BU Tool Services

Hilti Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH
Hiltistraße 6 | 86916 Kaufering

E klaus.rosenschild at hilti.com<mailto:klaus.rosenschild at hilti.com>

www.hilti.de<http://www.hilti.de/>

Hilti Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH
Geschäftsführer: Dr. Olaf Schadoffsky
Sitz der Gesellschaft: D-86916 Kaufering, Hiltistraße 6
Amtsgericht Augsburg HRB 16295

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rosekla at K122842H1:~/signing/playground/uboot$ ls
bcm2711-rpi-4-b.dtb  fitImage.its                                             keys
fitImage-sign.its    hilti-locker-initramfs-raspberrypi-cm4-digisens.cpio.gz  linux.bin
rosekla at K122842H1:~/signing/playground/uboot$ cat fitImage.its
/dts-v1/;

/ {
        description = "Kernel fitImage for Poky (Yocto Project Reference Distro)/6.6.22+git/raspberrypi-cm4-digisens";
        #address-cells = <1>;

        images {
                kernel-1 {
                        description = "Linux kernel";
                        data = /incbin/("linux.bin");
                        type = "kernel";
                        arch = "arm64";
                        os = "linux";
                        compression = "none";
                        load = <0x00008000>;
                        entry = <0x00008000>;
                        hash-1 {
                                algo = "sha256";
                        };
                };
                fdt-bcm2711-rpi-4-b.dtb {
                        description = "Flattened Device Tree blob";
                        data = /incbin/("bcm2711-rpi-4-b.dtb");
                        type = "flat_dt";
                        arch = "arm64";
                        compression = "none";

                        hash-1 {
                                algo = "sha256";
                        };
                };
                ramdisk-1 {
                        description = "hilti-locker-initramfs";
                        data = /incbin/("hilti-locker-initramfs-raspberrypi-cm4-digisens.cpio.gz");
                        type = "ramdisk";
                        arch = "arm64";
                        os = "linux";
                        compression = "none";


                        hash-1 {
                                algo = "sha256";
                        };
                };
        };

        configurations {
                default = "conf-bcm2711-rpi-4-b.dtb";
                conf-bcm2711-rpi-4-b.dtb {
                        description = "1 Linux kernel, FDT blob, ramdisk";

                        kernel = "kernel-1";
                        fdt = "fdt-bcm2711-rpi-4-b.dtb";
                        ramdisk = "ramdisk-1";


                };
        };
};
rosekla at K122842H1:~/signing/playground/uboot$ cat fitImage-sign.its
/dts-v1/;

/ {
        description = "Kernel fitImage for Poky (Yocto Project Reference Distro)/6.6.22+git/raspberrypi-cm4-digisens";
        #address-cells = <1>;

        images {
                kernel-1 {
                        description = "Linux kernel";
                        data = /incbin/("linux.bin");
                        type = "kernel";
                        arch = "arm64";
                        os = "linux";
                        compression = "none";
                        load = <0x00008000>;
                        entry = <0x00008000>;
                        hash-1 {
                                algo = "sha256";
                        };
                };
                fdt-bcm2711-rpi-4-b.dtb {
                        description = "Flattened Device Tree blob";
                        data = /incbin/("bcm2711-rpi-4-b.dtb");
                        type = "flat_dt";
                        arch = "arm64";
                        compression = "none";

                        hash-1 {
                                algo = "sha256";
                        };
                };
                ramdisk-1 {
                        description = "hilti-locker-initramfs";
                        data = /incbin/("hilti-locker-initramfs-raspberrypi-cm4-digisens.cpio.gz");
                        type = "ramdisk";
                        arch = "arm64";
                        os = "linux";
                        compression = "none";


                        hash-1 {
                                algo = "sha256";
                        };
                };
        };

        configurations {
                default = "conf-bcm2711-rpi-4-b.dtb";
                conf-bcm2711-rpi-4-b.dtb {
                        description = "1 Linux kernel, FDT blob, ramdisk";

                        kernel = "kernel-1";
                        fdt = "fdt-bcm2711-rpi-4-b.dtb";
                        ramdisk = "ramdisk-1";


                        signature {
                                algo = "sha256,rsa2048";
                                key-name-hint = "build";
                                sign-images = "kernel", "fdt", "ramdisk";
                                require-hash = "true";
                                padding = "pkcs-1.5";
                                sig-type = "x509";
                        };
                };
        };
};
rosekla at K122842H1:~/signing/playground/uboot$ mkimage -f fitImage.its  fitImage
FIT description: Kernel fitImage for Poky (Yocto Project Reference Distro)/6.6.22+git/raspberrypi-cm4-digisens
Created:         Wed Jan 15 15:52:49 2025
 Image 0 (kernel-1)
  Description:  Linux kernel
  Created:      Wed Jan 15 15:52:49 2025
  Type:         Kernel Image
  Compression:  uncompressed
  Data Size:    27406848 Bytes = 26764.50 KiB = 26.14 MiB
  Architecture: AArch64
  OS:           Linux
  Load Address: 0x00008000
  Entry Point:  0x00008000
  Hash algo:    sha256
  Hash value:   8fd7fa36fe73eb8f9a43e64e1be6d6d7f4225056985699692076feb2e6da358e
 Image 1 (fdt-bcm2711-rpi-4-b.dtb)
  Description:  Flattened Device Tree blob
  Created:      Wed Jan 15 15:52:49 2025
  Type:         Flat Device Tree
  Compression:  uncompressed
  Data Size:    54809 Bytes = 53.52 KiB = 0.05 MiB
  Architecture: AArch64
  Hash algo:    sha256
  Hash value:   b7a32c0939c4d51b9ab87c6d3d68388887c828f258bfa3fa48c8290a635fadd4
 Image 2 (ramdisk-1)
  Description:  hilti-locker-initramfs
  Created:      Wed Jan 15 15:52:49 2025
  Type:         RAMDisk Image
  Compression:  uncompressed
  Data Size:    41491844 Bytes = 40519.38 KiB = 39.57 MiB
  Architecture: AArch64
  OS:           Linux
  Load Address: unavailable
  Entry Point:  unavailable
  Hash algo:    sha256
  Hash value:   b4c834417c8a845907cc19a415fa69f4e23b442f03f1ea56f5b431b7fa2047fa
 Default Configuration: 'conf-bcm2711-rpi-4-b.dtb'
 Configuration 0 (conf-bcm2711-rpi-4-b.dtb)
  Description:  1 Linux kernel, FDT blob, ramdisk
  Kernel:       kernel-1
  Init Ramdisk: ramdisk-1
  FDT:          fdt-bcm2711-rpi-4-b.dtb
rosekla at K122842H1:~/signing/playground/uboot$ mkimage -f fitImage-sign.its -k keys/  fitImage-signed
FIT description: Kernel fitImage for Poky (Yocto Project Reference Distro)/6.6.22+git/raspberrypi-cm4-digisens
Created:         Wed Jan 15 15:52:58 2025
 Image 0 (kernel-1)
  Description:  Linux kernel
  Created:      Wed Jan 15 15:52:58 2025
  Type:         Kernel Image
  Compression:  uncompressed
  Data Size:    27406848 Bytes = 26764.50 KiB = 26.14 MiB
  Architecture: AArch64
  OS:           Linux
  Load Address: 0x00008000
  Entry Point:  0x00008000
  Hash algo:    sha256
  Hash value:   8fd7fa36fe73eb8f9a43e64e1be6d6d7f4225056985699692076feb2e6da358e
 Image 1 (fdt-bcm2711-rpi-4-b.dtb)
  Description:  Flattened Device Tree blob
  Created:      Wed Jan 15 15:52:58 2025
  Type:         Flat Device Tree
  Compression:  uncompressed
  Data Size:    54809 Bytes = 53.52 KiB = 0.05 MiB
  Architecture: AArch64
  Hash algo:    sha256
  Hash value:   b7a32c0939c4d51b9ab87c6d3d68388887c828f258bfa3fa48c8290a635fadd4
 Image 2 (ramdisk-1)
  Description:  hilti-locker-initramfs
  Created:      Wed Jan 15 15:52:58 2025
  Type:         RAMDisk Image
  Compression:  uncompressed
  Data Size:    41491844 Bytes = 40519.38 KiB = 39.57 MiB
  Architecture: AArch64
  OS:           Linux
  Load Address: unavailable
  Entry Point:  unavailable
  Hash algo:    sha256
  Hash value:   b4c834417c8a845907cc19a415fa69f4e23b442f03f1ea56f5b431b7fa2047fa
 Default Configuration: 'conf-bcm2711-rpi-4-b.dtb'
 Configuration 0 (conf-bcm2711-rpi-4-b.dtb)
  Description:  1 Linux kernel, FDT blob, ramdisk
  Kernel:       kernel-1
  Init Ramdisk: ramdisk-1
  FDT:          fdt-bcm2711-rpi-4-b.dtb
  Sign algo:    sha256,rsa2048:build
  Sign padding: pkcs-1.5
  Sign value:   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
  Timestamp:    Wed Jan 15 15:52:58 2025
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