From 8466ad2d70683856bcc07e8f305f66f55b1c701a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Francis Rowe Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2014 19:26:05 -0400 Subject: Documentation: notes about DMA and the docking station (X60/T60) --- (limited to 'docs/howtos/dock.html') diff --git a/docs/howtos/dock.html b/docs/howtos/dock.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ef62e83 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/howtos/dock.html @@ -0,0 +1,163 @@ + + + + + + + + + Notes about DMA and the docking station (X60/T60) + + + +
+

Notes about DMA and the docking station (X60/T60)

+ +
+ +
+
+Use case:
+---------
+Usually when people do full disk encryption, it's not really full disk,
+instead they still have a /boot in clear.
+
+So an evil maid attack can still be done, in two passes:
+1) Clone the hdd, Infect the initramfs or the kernel.
+2) Wait for the user to enter its password, recover the password,
+luksOpen the hdd image.
+
+I wanted a real full-disk encryption so I've put grub in flash and I
+have the following: The HDD has a LUKS rootfs(containing /boot) on an
+lvm partition, so no partition is in clear.
+
+So when the computer boots it executes coreboot, then grub as a payload.
+Grub then opens the LUKS partition and loads the kernel and initramfs
+from there.
+
+To prevent hardware level tempering(like reflashing), I used nail
+polish with a lot of gilder, that acts like a seal. Then a high
+resolution picture of it is taken, to be able to tell the difference.
+
+The problem:
+------------
+But then comes the docking port issue: Some LPC pins are exported
+there, such as the CLKRUN and LDRQ#.
+
+LDRQ# is "Encoded DMA/Bus Master Request": "Only needed by
+peripherals that need DMA or bus mastering. Requires an
+individual signal per peripheral. Peripherals may not share
+an LDRQ# signal."
+
+So now DMA access is possible trough the dock connector.
+So I want to be able to turn that off.
+
+If I got it right, the X60 has 2 superio, one is in the dock, and the
+other one is in the laptop, so we have:
+                            ________________
+ _________________         |                |
+|                 |        | Dock connector:|
+|Dock: NSC pc87982|<--LPC--->D_LPC_DREQ0    |
+|_________________|        |_______^________|
+                                   |
+                                   |
+                                   |
+                                   |
+                ___________________|____
+               |                   v    |
+               | SuperIO:        DLDRQ# |
+               | NSC pc87382     LDRQ#  |
+               |___________________^____|
+                                   |
+                                   |
+                                   |
+                                   |
+                ___________________|___
+               |                   v   |
+               | Southbridge:    LDRQ0 |
+               | ICH7                  |
+               |_______________________|
+
+
+The code:
+---------
+Now if I look at the existing code, there is some superio drivers, like
+pc87382 in src/superio/nsc, the code is very small. 
+The only interesting part is the pnp_info pnp_dev_info struct.
+
+Now if I look inside src/mainboard/lenovo/x60 there is some more
+complete dock driver:
+
+Inside dock.c I see some dock_connect and dock_disconnect functions.
+
+Such functions are called during the initialisation (romstage.c) and
+from the x60's SMI handler (smihandler.c).
+
+Questions:
+----------
+1) Would the following be sufficent to prevent DMA access from the
+outside:
+> int dock_connect(void)
+> {
+>          int timeout = 1000;
+> +        int val;
+> +        
+> +        if (get_option(&val, "dock") != CB_SUCCESS)
+> +                val = 1;
+> +        if (val == 0)
+> +                return 0;
+>          [...]
+> }
+>
+> void dock_disconnect(void) {
+> +        if (dock_present())
+> +                return;
+>          [...]
+> }
+2) Would an nvram option be ok for that? Should a Kconfig option be
+added too?
+
+> config DOCK_AUTODETECT
+>         bool "Autodetect"
+>         help
+>           The dock is autodetected. If unsure select this option.
+>
+> config DOCK_DISABLED
+>         bool "Disabled"
+>         help
+>           The dock is always disabled.
+>
+> config DOCK_NVRAM_ENABLE
+>         bool "Nvram"
+>         help
+>           The dock autodetection is tried only if it is also enabled
+> trough nvram.
+
+
+ +
+ +

+ Copyright © 2014 Francis Rowe <info@gluglug.org.uk>
+ This document is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License and all future versions. + A copy of the license can be found at ../license.txt. +

+ +

+ This document is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, + but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of + MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See ../license.txt + + + -- cgit v0.9.1