14 KiB
wolfBoot Key Tools
keygen
and sign
are two command line tools to be used on a PC (or automated
server) environment to manage wolfBoot private keys and sign the initial
firmware and all the updates for the target.
C Key Tools
A standalone C version of the key tools is available in: ./tools/keytools
.
These can be built in tools/keytools
using make
or from the wolfBoot root using make keytools
.
Windows Visual Studio
Use the wolfBootSignTool.vcxproj
Visual Studio project to build the sign.exe
and keygen.exe
tools for use on Windows.
If you see any error about missing target.h
this is a generated file based on your .config using the make process. It is needed for WOLFBOOT_SECTOR_SIZE
used in delta updates.
Command Line Usage
Keygen tool
Usage: keygen [OPTIONS] [-g new-keypair.der] [-i existing-pubkey.der] [...]
keygen
is used to populate a keystore with existing and new public keys.
The following options are supported:
-g privkey.der
to generate a new keypair, add the public key to the keystore and save the private key in a new fileprivkey.der
-i existing.der
to import an existing public key fromexisting.der
--der
save generated private key in DER format.--exportpubkey
to export the public key (corresponding to the private key generated with-g
) to a DER file. This option only has an effect if used in conjunction with the-g
option.--nolocalkeys
to generate a keystore entry with zeroized key material. This option is only useful on platforms that support using an external key by reference, such as wolfHSM. Only has an effect if used in conjunction with the-g
option.
Arguments are not exclusive, and can be repeated more than once to populate a keystore with multiple keys.
One option must be specified to select the algorithm enabled in the keystore (e.g. --ed25519
or --rsa3072
). See the section "Public key signature options" for the sign tool for the available options.
The files generate by the keygen tool is the following:
- A C file
src/keystore.c
, which is normally linked with the wolfBoot image, when the keys are provisioned through generated C code. - A binary file
keystore.img
that can be used to provision the public keys through an alternative storage - The private key, for each
-g
option provided from command line
For more information about the keystore mechanism, see keystore.md.
Sign tool
sign
produces a signed firmware image by creating a manifest header
in the format supported by wolfBoot.
Usage: sign [OPTIONS] IMAGE.BIN KEY.DER VERSION
IMAGE.BIN
: A file containing the binary firmware/software to sign
KEY.DER
: Private key file, in DER format, to sign the binary image
VERSION
: The version associated with this signed software
OPTIONS
: Zero or more options, described below
Image header size
By default, the manifest header size used by SIGN tool depends on the ideal
value for the configuration chosen. In some cases however, it is necessary to use
a different value than the default. To override the IMAGE_HEADER_SIZE
value,
set an environment variable with the same name and the desired value, via setenv
,
export
, or simply inlining it with the sign command:
IMAGE_HEADER_SIZE=2048 sign [OPTIONS] IMAGE.BIN KEY.DER VERSION
Public key signature options
If none of the following arguments is given, the tool will try to guess the key size from the format and key length detected in KEY.DER.
-
--ed25519
Use ED25519 for signing the firmware. Assume that the given KEY.DER file is in this format. -
--ed448
Use ED448 for signing the firmware. Assume that the given KEY.DER file is in this format. -
--ecc256
Use ecc256 for signing the firmware. Assume that the given KEY.DER file is in this format. -
--ecc384
Use ecc384 for signing the firmware. Assume that the given KEY.DER file is in this format. -
--ecc521
Use ecc521 for signing the firmware. Assume that the given KEY.DER file is in this format. -
--rsa2048
Use rsa2048 for signing the firmware. Assume that the given KEY.DER file is in this format. -
--rsa3072
Use rsa3072 for signing the firmware. Assume that the given KEY.DER file is in this format. -
--rsa4096
Use rsa4096 for signing the firmware. Assume that the given KEY.DER file is in this format. -
--lms
Use LMS/HSS for signing the firmware. Assume that the given KEY.DER file is in this format. -
--xmss
Use XMSS/XMSS^MT for signing the firmware. Assume that the given KEY.DER file is in this format. -
--no-sign
Disable secure boot signature verification. No signature verification is performed in the bootloader, and the KEY.DER argument should not be supplied.
Hash digest options
If none of the following is used, '--sha256' is assumed by default.
-
--sha256
Use sha256 for digest calculation on binary images and public keys. -
--sha348
Use sha384 for digest calculation on binary images and public keys. -
--sha3
Use sha3-384 for digest calculation on binary images and public keys.
Certificate Chain Options
wolfBoot also supports verifying firmware images using certificate chains instead of raw public keys. In this mode of operation, a certificate chain is included in the image manifest header, and the image is signed with the private key corresponding to the leaf certificate identity (signer cert). On boot, wolfBoot verifies the trust of the certificate chain (and therefore the signer cert) against a trusted root CA stored in the wolfHSM server, and if the chain is trusted, verifies the authenticity of the firmware image using the public key from the image signer certificate.
To generate an image for use with this mode, pass the --cert-chain CERT_CHAIN.der
option to the sign tool, where CERT_CHAIN.der
is a der encoded certificate chain containing one or more certificates in SSL order (leaf/signer cert last). Note that the sign tool still expects a signing private key to be provided as described above, and assumes that the public key of the signer cert in the chain corresponds to the signing private key.
Certificate chain verification of images is currently limited to use in conjuction with wolfHSM. See wolfHSM.md for more details.
Target partition id (Multiple partition images, "self-update" feature)
If none of the following is used, "--id=1" is assumed by default. On systems with a single image to verify (e.g. microcontroller with a single active partition), ID=1 is the default identifier for the firmware image to stage. ID=0 is reserved for wolfBoot 'self-update', and refers to the partition where the bootloader itself is stored.
-
--id N
Set image partition id to "N". -
--wolfboot-update
Indicate that the image contains a signed self-update package for the bootloader. Equivalent to--id 0
.
Encryption using a symmetric key
Although signed to be authenticated, by default the image is not encrypted and it's distributed as plain text. End-to-end encryption from the firmware packaging to the update process can be used if the firmware is stored on external non-volatile memories. Encrypted updates can be produced using a pre-shared, secret symmetric key, by passing the following option:
--encrypt SHAREDKEY.BIN
use the file SHAREKEY.BIN to encrypt the image.
The format of the file depends on the algorithm selected for the encryption.
If no format is specified, and the --encrypt SHAREDKEY.BIN
option is present,
--chacha
is assumed by default.
See options below.
-
--chacha
Use ChaCha20 algorithm for encrypting the image. The file SHAREDKEY.BIN is expected to be exactly 44 bytes in size, of which 32 will be used for the key, 12 for the initialization of the IV. -
--aes128
Use AES-128 algorithm in counter mode for encrypting the image. The file SHAREDKEY.BIN is expected to be exactly 32 bytes in size, of which 16 will be used for the key, 16 for the initialization of the IV. -
--aes256
Use AES-256 algorithm in counter mode for encrypting the image. The file SHAREDKEY.BIN is expected to be exactly 48 bytes in size, of which 32 will be used for the key, 16 for the initialization of the IV.
Delta updates (incremental updates from a known version)
An incremental update is created using the sign tool when the following option is provided:
--delta BASE_SIGNED_IMG.BIN
This option creates a binary diff file betweenBASE_SIGNED_IMG.BIN
and the new image signed starting fromIMAGE.BIN
. The result is stored in a file ending in_signed_diff.bin
.
The compression scheme used is Bentley–McIlroy.
Options:
--no-base-sha
: Avoid adding the sha of the base image to the manifest header. By default, the sign tool appends the sha of the base image to the manifest header, so wolfBoot will refuse to start a delta update if the sha does not match the one of the existing image. However, this takes up 32 to 48 bytes extra in the manifest header, so this option is available to provide compatibility on existing installations without this feature, where the header size does not allow to accommodate the field
Policy signing (for sealing/unsealing with a TPM)
Provides a PCR mask and digest to be signed and included in the header. The signing key is used to sign the digest.
--policy policy.bin
: This argument is multi-purpose. By default the file should contain a 4-byte PCR mask and SHA2-256 PCR digest to be signed. If using--manual-sign
then the file should contain the 4-byte PCR mask and signature. The PCR mask and signature will be included in theHDR_POLICY_SIGNATURE
header tag. A copy of the final signed policy (including 4 byte PCR mask) will be output to[inputname].sig
. Note: This may require increasing theIMAGE_HEADER_SIZE
as two signatures will be stored in the header.
Adding custom fields to the manifest header
Provides a value to be set with a custom tag
-
--custom-tlv tag len val
: Adds a TLV entry to the manifest header, corresponding to the type identified bytag
, with lengthlen
bytes, and assigns the valueval
. Values can be decimal or hex numbers (prefixed by '0x'). The tag is a 16-bit number. Valid tags are in the range between 0x0030 and 0xFEFE. -
--custom-tlv-buffer tag value
: Adds a TLV entry with arbitrary length to the manifest header, corresponding to the type identified bytag
, and assigns the valuevalue
. The tag is a 16-bit number. Valid tags are in the range between 0x0030 and 0xFEFE. The length is implicit, and is the length of the value. Value argument is in the form of a hex string, e.g.--custom-tlv-buffer 0x0030 AABBCCDDEE
will add a TLV entry with tag 0x0030, length 5 and value 0xAABBCCDDEE. -
--custom-tlv-string tag ascii-string
: Adds a TLV entry with arbitrary length to the manifest header, corresponding to the type identified bytag
, and assigns the value ofascii-string
. The tag is a 16-bit number. Valid tags are in the range between 0x0030 and 0xFEFE. The length is implicit, and is the length of theascii-string
.ascii-string
argument is in the form of a string, e.g.--custom-tlv-string 0x0030 "Version-1"
will add a TLV entry with tag 0x0030, length 9 and value Version-1.
Three-steps signing using external provisioning tools
If the private key is not accessible, while it's possible to sign payloads using a third-party tool, the sign mechanism can be split in three phases:
- Phase 1: Only create the sha digest for the image, and prepare an intermediate file that can be signed by third party tool.
This is done using the following option:
--sha-only
When this option is selected, the sign tool will create an intermediate image including part of the manifest that must be signed, ending in_digest.bin
. In this case, KEY.DER contains the public part of the key that will be used to sign the firmware in Phase 2.
-
Phase 2: The intermediate image
*_digest.bin
is signed by an external tool, an HSM or a third party signing service. The signature is then exported in its raw format and copied to a file, e.g. IMAGE_SIGNATURE.SIG -
Phase 3: use the following option to build the final authenticated firmware image, including its manifest header in front:
--manual-sign
When this option is provided, the KEY.DER argument contains the public part of the key that was used to sign the firmware in Phase 2. This option requires one extra argument at the end, after VERSION, which should be the filename of the signature that was the output of the previous phase, soIMAGE_SIGNATURE.SIG
For a real-life example, see the section below.
Examples
Signing Firmware
- Load the private key to use for signing into
./wolfboot_signing_private_key.der
- Run the signing tool with asymmetric algorithm, hash algorithm, file to sign, key and version.
./tools/keytools/sign --rsa2048 --sha256 test-app/image.bin wolfboot_signing_private_key.der 1
Note: The last argument is the "version" number.
Signing Firmware with External Private Key (HSM)
Steps for manually signing firmware using an external key source.
# Create file with Public Key
openssl rsa -inform DER -outform DER -in my_key.der -out rsa2048_pub.der -pubout
# Add the public key to the wolfBoot keystore using `keygen -i`
./tools/keytools/keygen --rsa2048 -i rsa2048_pub.der
# Generate Hash to Sign
./tools/keytools/sign --rsa2048 --sha-only --sha256 test-app/image.bin rsa2048_pub.der 1
# Sign hash Example (here is where you would use an HSM)
openssl pkeyutl -sign -keyform der -inkey my_key.der -in test-app/image_v1_digest.bin > test-app/image_v1.sig
# Generate final signed binary
./tools/keytools/sign --rsa2048 --sha256 --manual-sign test-app/image.bin rsa2048_pub.der 1 test-app/image_v1.sig
# Combine into factory image (0xc0000 is the WOLFBOOT_PARTITION_BOOT_ADDRESS)
tools/bin-assemble/bin-assemble factory.bin 0x0 wolfboot.bin \
0xc0000 test-app/image_v1_signed.bin