linux-kernel - Re: [v2 PATCH] RISC-V: Add a PE/COFF compliant Image header.

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Message-ID: <alpine.DEB.2.21.9999.1905171017510.9104@viisi.sifive.com>
Date:   Fri, 17 May 2019 10:39:31 -0700 (PDT)
From:   Paul Walmsley <paul.walmsley@...ive.com>
To:     Atish Patra <atish.patra@....com>
cc:     linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, mark.rutland@....com,
        Albert Ou <aou@...s.berkeley.edu>,
        Anup Patel <anup@...infault.org>,
        Palmer Dabbelt <palmer@...ive.com>,
        Zong Li <zong@...estech.com>, merker@...ian.org,
        linux-riscv@...ts.infradead.org
Subject: Re: [v2 PATCH] RISC-V: Add a PE/COFF compliant Image header.

On Wed, 1 May 2019, Atish Patra wrote:

> Currently, last stage boot loaders such as U-Boot can accept only
> uImage which is an unnecessary additional step in automating boot flows.
> 
> Add a PE/COFF compliant image header that boot loaders can parse and
> directly load kernel flat Image. The existing booting methods will continue
> to work as it is.

One other thought: as I think you or someone else may have pointed out, 
this isn't the PE/COFF header itself, but rather an ersatz DOS stub 
header, that is apparently quite close to what some EFI bootloaders 
require.  So from that point of view, it's probably best to just write in 
the patch description that the idea is to add something that resembles an 
MS-DOS stub header, and that the motivations are that:

1. it resembles what ARM64 is doing, and there's not much point in 
inventing another boot header format that's completely different

2. it can be easily converted into an MS-DOS header that some EFI 
bootloaders apparently require, by tweaking a few bytes at the beginning

- Paul