Re: [Xen-devel] [PATCH] docs/vtpm: explain dom0 physical TPM access caveats

[Daniel De Graaf <dgdegra@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 03/13/2014 07:10 AM, Ian Campbell wrote:
> On Wed, 2014-03-12 at 10:37 -0400, Daniel De Graaf wrote:
> > On 03/12/2014 09:51 AM, Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk wrote:
> > > On Wed, Mar 12, 2014 at 12:32:24PM +0000, Shuaijun Zhang wrote:
> > > > Hi There,
> > > >
> > > > In the document of VTPM (http://xenbits.xen.org/docs/unstable/misc/vtpm.txt
> > > > ): The Linux dom0 kernel should not try accessing the TPM while the
> > > > vTPM Manager
> > > > domain is accessing it.
> > > >
> > > > Anyone knows the reason why the dom0 should not access the TPM while vTPM
> > > > Mgr is accessing it?
> > > Lets rope in the maintainer. Perhaps the doc should be updated to explain
> > > this.
> > >
> > > > Thanks & Regards,
> > > > Jason
> > I agree; this docs patch explains the reasoning behind the original guidance
> > and addresses use cases that cannot yet be handled by a virtual TPM.
> >
> > ----------------------------->8--------------------------------
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Daniel De Graaf <dgdegra@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Acked-by: Ian Campbell <ian.campbell@xxxxxxxxxx>
>
> I tried to apply but it failed because the title lines (and the
> underlines) in the context are one space further indented than the copy
> in the tree. This happened with your previous patch to this file too (I
> fixed it up that time).
>
> Do you have another patch in your queue which does this reformatting or
> is something mangling things?
I think Thunderbird is to blame here; I made sure to base this patch on top
of xen/staging rather than my work branch, and copy/pasted directly from
the patch output.  I probably need to revert to using git-send-email as my
mail client for sending these patches in the future.

> > ---
> >    docs/misc/vtpm.txt | 22 ++++++++++++++++++----
> >    1 file changed, 18 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
> >
> > diff --git a/docs/misc/vtpm.txt b/docs/misc/vtpm.txt
> > index df1dfae..d20b424 100644
> > --- a/docs/misc/vtpm.txt
> > +++ b/docs/misc/vtpm.txt
> > @@ -120,10 +120,24 @@ the stubdom tree.
> >    Compiling the LINUX dom0 kernel:
> >    --------------------------------
> >
> > -The Linux dom0 kernel should not try accessing the TPM while the vTPM
> > -Manager domain is accessing it; the simplest way to accomplish this is
> > -to ensure the kernel is compiled without a driver for the TPM, or avoid
> > -loading the driver by blacklisting the module.
> > +Because the TPM manager uses direct access to the physical TPM, it may 
> > interfere
> > +with access to the TPM by dom0.  The simplest solution for this is to prevent
> > +dom0 from accessing the physical TPM by compiling the kernel without a driver 
> > or
> > +blacklisting the module.  If dom0 needs a TPM but does not need to use it 
> > during
> > +the boot process (i.e. it is not using IMA), a virtual TPM can be attached to
> > +dom0 after the system is booted.
> > +
> > +Because the TPM manager does not yet accept requests for deep quotes, if a 
> > quote
> > +or other request needs to be fulfilled by the physical TPM, dom0 will need to
> > +access the physical TPM.  In order to prevent interference, the TPM Manager and
> > +dom0 should use different values for the TPM's locality; since Linux always 
> > uses
> > +locality 0, using locality 2 for the TPM Manager is recommended.  If both Linux
> > +and the TPM Manager attempt to access the TPM at the same time, the TPM device
> > +will return a busy status; some applications will consider this a fatal error
> > +instead of retrying the command at a later time.  If a vTPM gets an error when
> > +loading its key, it will currently generate a fresh vTPM image (with a new EK,
> > +SRK, and blank NVRAM).
> > +
> >
> >    Compiling the LINUX domU kernel:
> >    --------------------------------
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Xen-devel mailing list
> > Xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > http://lists.xen.org/xen-devel

--
Daniel De Graaf
National Security Agency

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