linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v5 03/11] tpm: Allow PCR 23 to be restricted to kernel-only use

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Message-ID: <CAHSSk058UoBY2nDx8U7-siG_dbjNSKZaPukZVjSnq=f=CBSKsw@mail.gmail.com>
Date:   Sat, 14 Jan 2023 19:05:03 -0800
From:   Matthew Garrett <mgarrett@...ora.tech>
To:     jejb@...ux.ibm.com
Cc:     William Roberts <bill.c.roberts@...il.com>,
        Evan Green <evgreen@...omium.org>,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, corbet@....net,
        linux-integrity@...r.kernel.org,
        Eric Biggers <ebiggers@...nel.org>, gwendal@...omium.org,
        dianders@...omium.org, apronin@...omium.org,
        Pavel Machek <pavel@....cz>, Ben Boeckel <me@...boeckel.net>,
        rjw@...ysocki.net, Kees Cook <keescook@...omium.org>,
        dlunev@...gle.com, zohar@...ux.ibm.com, jarkko@...nel.org,
        linux-pm@...r.kernel.org, Matthew Garrett <mjg59@...gle.com>,
        Jason Gunthorpe <jgg@...pe.ca>, Peter Huewe <peterhuewe@....de>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v5 03/11] tpm: Allow PCR 23 to be restricted to
 kernel-only use

On Sat, Jan 14, 2023 at 6:55 AM James Bottomley <jejb@...ux.ibm.com> wrote:
> Can we go back again to why you can't use locality?  It's exactly
> designed for this since locality is part of creation data.  Currently
> everything only uses locality 0, so it's impossible for anyone on Linux
> to produce a key with anything other than 0 in the creation data for
> locality.  However, the dynamic launch people are proposing that the
> Kernel should use Locality 2 for all its operations, which would allow
> you to distinguish a key created by the kernel from one created by a
> user by locality.
>
> I think the previous objection was that not all TPMs implement
> locality, but then not all laptops have TPMs either, so if you ever
> come across one which has a TPM but no locality, it's in a very similar
> security boat to one which has no TPM.

It's not a question of TPM support, it's a question of platform
support. Intel chipsets that don't support TXT simply don't forward
requests with non-0 locality. Every Windows-sticker laptop since 2014
has shipped with a TPM, but the number that ship with TXT support is a
very small percentage of that. I agree that locality is the obvious
solution for a whole bunch of problems, but it's just not usable in
the generic case.