xen/docs/man/xen-vtpm.7.pod

=head1 NAME

xen-vtpm - Xen virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM) subsystem

=head1 RUBRIC

Copyright (c) 2010-2012 United States Government, as represented by
the Secretary of Defense.  All rights reserved.
November 12 2012
Authors: Matthew Fioravante (JHUAPL), Daniel De Graaf (NSA)

This document describes the virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM) subsystem
for Xen. The reader is assumed to have familiarity with building and installing
Xen, Linux, and a basic understanding of the TPM and vTPM concepts.

=head1 INTRODUCTION

The goal of this work is to provide a TPM functionality to a virtual guest
operating system (a DomU).  This allows programs to interact with a TPM in a
virtual system the same way they interact with a TPM on the physical system.
Each guest gets its own unique, emulated, software TPM.  However, each of the
vTPM's secrets (Keys, NVRAM, etc) are managed by a vTPM Manager domain, which
seals the secrets to the Physical TPM.  If the process of creating each of these
domains (manager, vTPM, and guest) is trusted, the vTPM subsystem extends the
chain of trust rooted in the hardware TPM to virtual machines in Xen. Each
major component of vTPM is implemented as a separate domain, providing secure
separation guaranteed by the hypervisor. The vTPM domains are implemented in
mini-os to reduce memory and processor overhead.
 
This mini-os vTPM subsystem was built on top of the previous vTPM work done by
IBM and Intel corporation.
 
=head1 DESIGN OVERVIEW

The architecture of vTPM is described below:

    +------------------+
    |    Linux DomU    | ...
    |       |  ^       |
    |       v  |       |
    |   xen-tpmfront   |
    +------------------+
            |  ^
            v  |
    +------------------+
    | mini-os/tpmback  |
    |       |  ^       |
    |       v  |       |
    |  vtpm-stubdom    | ...
    |       |  ^       |
    |       v  |       |
    | mini-os/tpmfront |
    +------------------+
            |  ^
            v  |
    +------------------+
    | mini-os/tpmback  |
    |       |  ^       |
    |       v  |       |
    | vtpmmgr-stubdom  |
    |       |  ^       |
    |       v  |       |
    | mini-os/tpm_tis  |
    +------------------+
            |  ^
            v  |
    +------------------+
    |   Hardware TPM   |
    +------------------+

=over 4

=item Linux DomU

The Linux based guest that wants to use a vTPM. There many be
more than one of these.

=item xen-tpmfront.ko

Linux kernel virtual TPM frontend driver. This driver
provides vTPM access to a para-virtualized Linux based DomU.

=item mini-os/tpmback

Mini-os TPM backend driver. The Linux frontend driver
connects to this backend driver to facilitate
communications between the Linux DomU and its vTPM. This
driver is also used by vtpmmgr-stubdom to communicate with
vtpm-stubdom.

=item vtpm-stubdom

A mini-os stub domain that implements a vTPM. There is a
one to one mapping between running vtpm-stubdom instances and
logical vtpms on the system. The vTPM Platform Configuration
Registers (PCRs) are all initialized to zero.

=item mini-os/tpmfront

Mini-os TPM frontend driver. The vTPM mini-os domain
vtpm-stubdom uses this driver to communicate with
vtpmmgr-stubdom. This driver could also be used separately to
implement a mini-os domain that wishes to use a vTPM of
its own.

=item vtpmmgr-stubdom

A mini-os domain that implements the vTPM manager.
There is only one vTPM manager and it should be running during
the entire lifetime of the machine.  This domain regulates
access to the physical TPM on the system and secures the
persistent state of each vTPM.

=item mini-os/tpm_tis

Mini-os TPM version 1.2 TPM Interface Specification (TIS)
driver. This driver used by vtpmmgr-stubdom to talk directly to
the hardware TPM. Communication is facilitated by mapping
hardware memory pages into vtpmmgr-stubdom.

=item Hardware TPM

The physical TPM that is soldered onto the motherboard.

=back

=head1 INSTALLATION

=head2 Prerequisites:

You must have an x86 machine with a TPM on the motherboard.  The only extra
software requirement for compiling vTPM is cmake.  You must use libxl to manage
domains with vTPMs; 'xm' is deprecated and does not support vTPMs.

=head2 Compiling the Xen tree:

Compile and install the Xen tree as usual; be sure that the vTPM domains are
enabled when you run configure.

=head2 Compiling the LINUX dom0 kernel:

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.

Access to the physical TPM may be required in order to manage the NVRAM or to
perform other advanced operations where the vTPM is insufficient.  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).


=head2 Compiling the LINUX domU kernel:

The domU kernel used by domains with vtpms must include the xen-tpmfront.ko
driver. It can be built directly into the kernel or as a module; however, some
features such as IMA require the TPM to be built in to the kernel.

    CONFIG_TCG_TPM=y
    CONFIG_TCG_XEN=y

=head1 VTPM MANAGER SETUP

=head2 Manager disk image setup:

The vTPM Manager requires a disk image to store its encrypted data. The image
does not require a filesystem and can live anywhere on the host disk. The image
is not large; the Xen 4.5 vtpmmgr is limited to using the first 2MB of the image
but can support more than 20,000 vTPMs.

=head2 Manager config file:

The vTPM Manager domain (vtpmmgr-stubdom) must be started like any other Xen
virtual machine and requires a config file.  The manager requires a disk image
for storage and permission to access the hardware memory pages for the TPM. The
disk must be presented as "hda", and the TPM memory pages are passed using the
iomem configuration parameter. The TPM TIS uses 5 pages of IO memory (one per
locality) that start at physical address 0xfed40000. By default, the TPM manager
uses locality 0 (so only the page at 0xfed40 is needed); this can be changed on
the domain's command line.  For full functionality in deep quotes, using
locality 2 is required to manipulate PCR 20-22.

=head2 Starting and stopping the manager:

The vTPM manager should be started at boot; you may wish to create an init
script to do this.  If a domain builder is used, the TPM Manager should be
started by the domain builder to minimize the trusted computing base for the
vTPM manager's secrets.

Once initialization is complete you should see the following:

    INFO[VTPM]: Waiting for commands from vTPM's:

The TPM Manager does not respond to shutdown requests; use the destroy command
to shut it down.

=head1 VTPM AND LINUX PVM SETUP

=head2 vTPM disk image setup:

The vTPM requires a disk image to store its persistent data (RSA keys, NVRAM,
etc). The image does not require a filesystem. The image does not need to be
large; 2 Mb should be sufficient.

=head2 vTPM config file:

The vTPM domain requires a configuration file like any other domain. The vTPM
requires a disk image for storage and a TPM frontend driver to communicate with
the manager.  You are required to generate a uuid for this vtpm, which is
specified on the C<vtpm=> line that describes its connection to the vTPM Manager.
The uuidgen application may be used to generate a uuid, or one from the output
of the C<manage-vtpmmgr.pl vtpm-add> command may be used to create a vTPM
belonging to a specific group.

If you wish to clear the vTPM data you can either recreate the disk image or
change the uuid.

=head2 Linux Guest config file:

The Linux guest config file needs to be modified to include the Linux tpmfront
driver. Add the following line:

    vtpm=["backend=domu-vtpm"]

Currently only Linux guests are supported (PV or HVM with PV drivers).

While attaching a vTPM after a guest is booted (using xl vtpm-attach) is
supported, the attached vTPM will not have a record of the boot of the attached
guest.  Furthermore, if the vTPM has been freshly created, a malicious guest
could then extend any values into PCRs, potentially forging its boot
configuration.  Attaching a vTPM to a running domain should only be used for
trusted domains or when measurements have already been sent to the vTPM from
another source.

=head2 Using the vTPM in the guest:

If xen-tpmfront was compiled as a module, it must be loaded it in the guest.

    # modprobe xen-tpmfront

After the Linux domain boots and the xen-tpmfront driver is loaded, you should
see the following on the vtpm console:

    Info: VTPM attached to Frontend X/Y

You can quickly test the vTPM by using the sysfs interface:

    # cat /sys/devices/vtpm-0/pubek
    # cat /sys/devices/vtpm-0/pcrs

If you have trousers and tpm_tools installed on the guest, the tpm_version
command should return the following:

The version command should return the following:

    TPM 1.2 Version Info:
    Chip Version:        1.2.0.7
    Spec Level:          2
    Errata Revision:     1
    TPM Vendor ID:       ETHZ
    TPM Version:         01010000
    Manufacturer Info:   4554485a

You should also see the command being sent to the vtpm console as well as the
vtpm saving its state. You should see the vtpm key being encrypted and stored on
the vtpmmgr console.

You may wish to write a script to start your vtpm and guest together and to
destroy the vtpm when the guest shuts down.

=head1 INTEGRATION WITH PV-GRUB

The vTPM currently starts up with all PCRs set to their default values (all
zeros for the lower 16).  This means that any decisions about the
trustworthiness of the created domain must be made based on the environment that
created the vTPM and the domU; for example, a system that only constructs images
using a trusted configuration and guest kernel be able to provide guarantees
about the guests and any measurements done that kernel (such as the IMA TCB
log).  Guests wishing to use a custom kernel in such a secure environment are
often started using the pv-grub bootloader as the kernel, which then can load
the untrusted kernel without needing to parse an untrusted filesystem and kernel
in dom0.  If the pv-grub stub domain succeeds in connecting to a vTPM, it will
extend the hash of the kernel that it boots into PCR #4, and will extend the
command line and initrd into PCR #5 before booting so that a domU booted in this
way can attest to its early boot state.

=head1 MORE INFORMATION

See <xen-vtpmmgr(7)> for more details about how the manager domain works, how to use
it, and its command line parameters.

=head1 VTPM DOMAIN OPERATION

The vtpm-stubdom is a mini-OS domain that emulates a TPM for the guest OS to
use. It is a small wrapper around the Berlios TPM emulator version 0.7.4.
Commands are passed from the linux guest via the mini-os TPM backend driver.
vTPM data is encrypted and stored via a disk image provided to the virtual
machine. The key used to encrypt the data along with a hash of the vTPM's data
is sent to the vTPM manager for secure storage and later retrieval.  The vTPM
domain communicates with the manager using a mini-os tpm front/back device pair.

=head1 VTPM DOMAIN COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS

Command line arguments are passed to the domain via the 'extra' parameter in the
VM config file. Each parameter is separated by white space. For example:

    extra="foo=bar baz"

=head2 List of Arguments:

=over 4

=item B<loglevel>=<LOG>

Controls the amount of logging printed to the console.
The possible values for <LOG> are:

=over 4

=item * error

=item * info (default)

=item * debug

=back

=item B<clear>

Start the Berlios emulator in "clear" mode. (default)

=item B<save>

Start the Berlios emulator in "save" mode.

=item B<deactivated>

Start the Berlios emulator in "deactivated" mode.
See the Berlios TPM emulator documentation for details
about the startup mode. For all normal use, always use clear
which is the default. You should not need to specify any of these.

=item B<maintcmds>=<1|0>

Enable to disable the TPM maintenance commands.
These commands are used by tpm manufacturers and thus
open a security hole. They are disabled by default.

=item B<hwinitpcr>=<PCRSPEC>

Initialize the virtual Platform Configuration Registers
(PCRs) with PCR values from the hardware TPM. Each pcr specified by
<PCRSPEC> will be initialized with the value of that same PCR in TPM
once at startup. By default all PCRs are zero initialized.
Possible values of <PCRSPEC> are:

=over

=item * all: copy all pcrs

=item * none: copy no pcrs (default)

=item * <N>: copy pcr n

=item * <X-Y>: copy pcrs x to y (inclusive)

=back

These can also be combined by comma separation, for example:
C<hwinitpcrs=5,12-16> will copy pcrs 5, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16.

=back

=head1 REFERENCES

Berlios TPM Emulator: L<https://github.com/PeterHuewe/tpm-emulator>