digsigserver

A simple server for processing signing requests via a REST interface, intended for use with a cross-build system for embedded Linux. It currently handles signing requests for:

• NVIDIA Jetson bootloader signing
• Kernel module signing
• Mender artifact signing
• Swupdate sw-description signing

Prerequisites

Requires Python 3.7 or later and a reasonably modern Linux distro to host the server. (Tested with Ubuntu 18.04 and later.) See setup.py for specific Python packages required.

Prerequsities: Jetson bootloader signing

For Jetson bootloader signing, you must download the Linux4Tegra BSP and secure boot packages from NVIDIA's L4T download site. You must unpack the two tarballs into a specific location in the filesystem based on the version and target architecture of the BSP, so they can be found by the server. For example, for L4T R32.4.3 for Jetson TX2/Xavier, you would enter:

$ sudo mkdir -p /opt/nvidia/L4T-32.4.3-tegra186
$ sudo tar -C /opt/nvidia/L4T-32.4.3-tegra186 -xf Tegra186_Linux_R32.4.3_aarch64.tbz2
$ sudo tar -C /opt/nvidia/L4T-32.4.3-tegra186 -xf secureboot_R32.4.3_aarch64.tbz2

You can use a different top-level path than /opt/nvidia by setting the environment variable DIGSIGSERVER_L4T_TOOLS_BASE. The top-level directory under that base path must, however, always be L4T-<version>-<tegraXXX>, where version is the BSP version (without the "R" prefix) and tegraXXX is either tegra186 for TX2/Xavier or tegra210 for TX1/Nano. The server supports having multiple versions of the BSP installed.

For each BSP version/architecture, you also need a helper script (and possibly one or more patches to apply to NVIDIA's scripts), available from the meta-tegra repository.

For L4T R32.4.3, checkout the dunfell-l4t-r32.4.3 branch of that repository. The helper scripts are at recipes-bsp/tegra-binaries/tegra-helper-scripts/tegraXXX-flash-helper.sh. The needed script(s) should get installed without the .sh suffix into the bootloader directory for the BSP. For example (for R32.4.3, TX2/Xavier):

$ cd /path/to/meta-tegra/recipes-bsp/tegra-binaries/tegra-helper-scripts
$ sudo install -m 0755 tegra186-flash-helper.sh \
  /opt/nvidia/L4T-32.4.3-tegra186/Linux_for_Tegra/bootloader/tegra186-flash-helper
$ sudo install -m 0755 tegra194-flash-helper.sh \
  /opt/nvidia/L4T-32.4.3-tegra186/Linux_for_Tegra/bootloader/tegra194-flash-helper

If you are supporting Jetson TX2 or Jetson AGX Xavier devices that use both PKC signing and SBK encryption of bootloader files, you will also need to apply at least this patch from meta-tegra:

$ P=/path/to/meta-tegra/recipes-bsp/tegra-binaries/files
$ cd /opt/nvidia/L4T-32.4.3-tegra186/Linux_for_Tegra
$ sudo patch -p1 < $P/0002-Fix-typo-in-l4t_bup_gen.func.patch

Check the tegraXXX-flashtools-native recipes in meta-tegra to see if other patches might also be needed.

Prerequisites: Kernel module signing

For kernel module signing, your Linux distribution must have the sign-file tool at /usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r)/scripts/sign-file, and that version of the tool must be compatible with the kernel you are cross-building.

Prerequisites: Mender artifact signing

For Mender artifact signing, you must have the mender-artifact tool available in the PATH. Visit the Mender documentation pages and go to the "Downloads" section to find a download of a pre-built copy of this tool, or follow the instructions there for building it from source. Installing it in /usr/local/bin should make it available.

Prerequisites: Swupdate signing

For signing sw-description files for swupdate packages, openssl is required. RSA and CMS signing methods are supported.

Installing

Use pip install (or pip3 install in some cases, to ensure that you are using Python 3) to install this package and its dependencies. You can do this system-wide, for a single user (with the --user option), or in a Python 3 virtual environment.

Configuring

Configuration is handled through environment variables:

DIGSIGSERVER_KEYFILE_URI: this should be set to the location of the signing-key files used for signing operations. The server only retrieves the files when needed and never retains them after a signing operation is complete. Currently, file:// and s3:// URIs are supported.

DIGSIGSERVER_L4T_TOOLS_BASE: path to the directory under which the L4T BSP package(s) have been installed. Defaults to /opt/nvidia.

Other settings for configuring the underlying Sanic framework can also be provided.

Timeouts

Some signing operations (particularly for bootloader update payloads and Mender artifacts) can take several minutes to complete, so the server configuration sets a default RESPONSE_TIMEOUT of five minutes. You may need to increase this setting, depending on your server hardware and expected service load. You should also configure client-side timeouts and retries to guard against signing failures caused by service timeouts under load.

Running

Once installed, use the digsigserver command to start the server:

$ digsigserver [--address <ipaddr>] [--port <port>] [--debug]

By default, the server listens on address 0.0.0.0 (i.e, all interfaces) and port 9999 (TCP).

Signing key storage layout

The signing key files are expected to be organized under $DIGSIGSERVER_KEYFILE_URI based on the type of signing operation and the parameters passed in for signing.

Jetson bootloader signing

For Jetson bootloader signing, the following files are expected to be present:

${DIGSIGSERVER_KEYFILE_URI}/${machine}/tegrasign/rsa_priv.pem
${DIGSIGSERVER_KEYFILE_URI}/${machine}/tegrasign/sbk.txt

where ${machine} is the value of the machine= parameter included in the signing request. The rsa_priv.pem file is the PKC private key for signing. It must be present. The sbk.txt file is the SBK encryption key. It is optional, and only need be included if your device has had an SBK burned into its secure boot fuses.

Kernel module signing

For kernel module signing, the private and public keys for signing the kernel modules are expected to be at:

${DIGSIGSERVER_KEYFILE_URI}/${machine}/kmodsign/kernel-signkey.priv
${DIGSIGSERVER_KEYFILE_URI}/${machine}/kmodsign/kernel-signkey.x509

where ${machine} is the value of the machine= parameter included in the signing request.

Mender artifact signing

For Mender artifacts, the signing key is expected to be at

${DIGSIGSERVER_KEYFILE_URI}/${distro}/mender/private.key

where ${distro} is the value of the distro= parameter included in the signing request.

SWUpdate sw-description signing

For SWUpdate, the signing key is expected to be at

for RSA:

${DIGSIGSERVER_KEYFILE_URI}/${distro}/swupdate/rsa-private.key

For CMS:

${DIGSIGSERVER_KEYFILE_URI}/${distro}/swupdate/cms.cert
${DIGSIGSERVER_KEYFILE_URI}/${distro}/swupdate/cms-private.key

where ${distro} is the value of the distro= parameter included in the signing request.

REST API endpoints

digsigserver exposes the following API endpoints:

Jetson bootloader signing

Request type: POST

Endpoint: /sign/tegra

Expected parameters:

• machine=<machine-name> - a name for the device, used to locate the signing keys
• soctype=<soctype> - one of tegra186, tegra194, tegra210
• bspversion=<l4t-version> - the L4T BSP version, e.g. 32.4.3
• artifact=<body> - gzip-compressed tarball containing the binaries to be signed

The artifact tarball must also include a MANIFEST file with additional information about the hardware and contents of the tarball.

Response: gzip-compressed tarball containing the signed binaries

Example client: tegrasign.bbclass

Kernel module signing

Request type: POST

Endpoint: /sign/modules

Expected parameters:

• machine=<machine> - a name for the device, used to locate the signing keys
• hashalg=<algname> (optional) - the hash algorithm to be used, defaults to sha512
• artifact=<body> - gzip-compressed tarball containing the tree of modules to be signed

Response: gzip-compressed tarball containing the same tree of modules, signed

Example client: kernel-module-signing.bbclass

Mender artifact signing

Request type: POST

Endpoint: /sign/mender

Expected parameters:

• distro=<distro> - a name for the "distro", used to locate the signing keys
• artifact-uri=<url> - a URL that digsigserver can use to download the Mender artifact

Because Mender full-image artifacts are often hundreds of megabytes or larger, the artifact itself is not posted in the body of the request. Instead, a URL is provided (currently only supporting file:// and s3:// URLs). The client must upload the artifact to the specified location. digsigserver will download it, apply the signature, then upload the signed copy back to the same location.

Response: no body, just a status code

Example client: mendersign.bbclass

SWUpdate sw-description signing

Request type: POST

Endpoint: /sign/swupdate

Expected parameters:

• distro=<distro> - a name for the "distro", used to locate the signing keys
• sw-description=<body> - the contents of the sw-description file to have signatures included

Response: a sw-description file with signatures inserted

Example client: swupdatesign.bbclass

Securing signing keys

Signing keys should obviously be kept as secure as possible, but the specifics of doing that will depend on your specific workflows and facilities. digsigserver does not manage the storage of signing keys, but expects to be able to retrieve them via the URI that you configure when they are needed.

If you run digsigserver on a locked-down server, storing the key files in the local filesystem on that server may be adequate. An AWS S3 bucket, combined with, for example, bucket-level AWS KMS encryption, may be a viable alternative.

Securing the signing service

By default, digsigserver runs as an unsecured HTTP-based service, and is not intended to be run as-is on an Internet-connected server. If you need to control access to it, you may want to run it behind a reverse proxy server that can perform the necessary authentication and authorization checks on incoming requests.

PLEASE NOTE

This code comes with no warranties or assurances as to its security or suitability for any particular purpose. Use at your own risk.