From 8b2219bfa2da36e7809588ef723a10483a6e137f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Francis Rowe Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 20:52:36 -0500 Subject: Documentation: *major* cleanup. Cleanup was long overdue. Old structure was messy and inefficient. --- (limited to 'docs/howtos/t60_security.html') diff --git a/docs/howtos/t60_security.html b/docs/howtos/t60_security.html deleted file mode 100644 index f39c739..0000000 --- a/docs/howtos/t60_security.html +++ /dev/null @@ -1,445 +0,0 @@ - - - - - - - - - Libreboot documentation: Security on the ThinkPad T60 - - - - -
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Security on the ThinkPad T60

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Or go back to main index

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Table of Contents

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Hardware requirements

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Software requirements

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- Rationale -

-

- Most people think of security on the software side: the hardware is important aswell. - Hardware security is useful in particular to journalists (or activists in a given movement) who need absolute privacy in their work. - It is also generally useful to all those that believe security and privacy are inalienable rights. - Security starts with the hardware; crypto and network security come later. -

-

- Paradoxically, going this far to increase your security also makes you a bigger target. - At the same time, it protects you in the case that someone does attack your machine. - This paradox only exists while few people take adequate steps to protect yourself: it is your duty - to protect yourself, not only for your benefit but to make strong security normal so - that those who do need protection (and claim it) are a smaller target against the masses. -

-

- Even if there are levels of security beyond your ability (technically, financially and so on) - doing at least something (what you are able to do) is extremely important. - If you use the internet and your computer without protection, attacking you is cheap (some say it is - only a few US cents). If everyone (majority of people) use strong security by default, - it makes attacks more costly and time consuming; in effect, making them disappear. -

-

- This tutorial deals with reducing the number of devices that have direct memory access that - could communicate with inputs/outputs that could be used to remotely - command the machine (or leak data). -

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Disassembly

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- Remove those screws and remove the HDD:
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- Lift off the palm rest:
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- Lift up the keyboard, pull it back a bit, flip it over like that and then disconnect it from the board:
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- Gently wedge both sides loose:
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- Remove that cable from the position:
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- Now remove that bezel. Remove wifi, nvram battery and speaker connector (also remove 56k modem, on the left of wifi):
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- Reason: has direct (and very fast) memory access, and could (theoretically) leak data over a side-channel.
- Wifi: The ath5k/ath9k cards might not have firmware at all. They might safe but could have - access to the computer's RAM trough DMA. If people have an intel - card(most T60's come with Intel wifi by default, until you change it),then that card runs - a non-free firwamre and has access to the computer's RAM trough DMA! So - it's risk-level is very high. -

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- Remove those screws:
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- Disconnect the power jack:
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- Remove nvram battery (we will put it back later):
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- Disconnect cable (for 56k modem) and disconnect the other cable:
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- Disconnect speaker cable:
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- Disconnect the other end of the 56k modem cable:
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- Make sure you removed it:
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- Unscrew those:
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- Make sure you removed those:
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- Disconnect LCD cable from board:
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- Remove those screws then remove the LCD assembly:
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- Once again, make sure you removed those:
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- Remove the shielding containing the motherboard, then flip it over. Remove these screws, placing them on a steady - surface in the same layout as they were in before you removed them. Also, you should mark each screw hole after removing the - screw (a permanent marker pen will do), this is so that you have a point of reference when re-assembling the machine:
- - -

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- Remove microphone (soldering iron not needed. Just wedge it out gently):
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- Rationale:
- Another reason to remove the microphone: If your computer gets[1] compromised, it can - record what you say, and use it to receive data from nearby devices if - they're compromised too. Also, we do not know what the built-in microcode (in the CPU) is doing; it could theoretically - be programmed to accept remote commands from some speaker somewhere (remote security hole). In other words, - the machine could already be compromised from the factory. -

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- Remove infrared:
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- Remove cardbus (it's in a socket, no need to disable. Just remove the port itself):
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- Rationale:
- It has direct memory access and can be used to extract sensitive details (such as LUKS keys). See - 'GoodBIOS' video linked at the end (speaker is Peter Stuge, a coreboot hacker). The video covers X60 - but the same topics apply to T60. -

- -

- Before re-installing the upper chassis, remove the speaker:
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- Reason: combined with the microphone issue, this could be used to leak data.
- If your computer gets[1] compromised, it can be used to - transmit data to nearby compromised devices. It's unknown if it can be - turned into a microphone[2].
- Replacement: headphones/speakers (line-out) or external DAC (USB). -

- -

- Remove the wwan:
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- Wwan (3d modem): They run proprietary software and have access to the - computer's RAM! So it's like AMT but over the GSM network which is - probably even worse.
- Replacement: external USB wifi dongle. (or USB wwan/3g dongle; note, this has all the same privacy issues as mobile phones. wwan not recommended). -

- -

- This is where the simcard connector is soldered. See notes above about wwan. Remove simcard by removing battery - and then it's accessible (so, remember to do this when you re-assemble. or you could do it now?)
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- Put those screws back:
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- Put it back into lower chassis:
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- Attach LCD and insert screws (also, attach the lcd cable to the board):
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- Insert those screws:
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- On the CPU (and there is another chip south-east to it, sorry forgot to take pic) - clean off the old thermal paste (rubbing a1ocheal (misspelling intentional. halal internet)) and apply new (Artic Silver 5 is good, others are good too) - you should also clean the heatsink the same way
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- Attach the heatsink and install the screws (also, make sure to install the AC jack as highlighted):
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- Reinstall that upper bezel:
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- Do that:
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- Attach keyboard and install nvram battery:
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- Place keyboard and (sorry, forgot to take pics) reinstall the palmrest and insert screws on the underside:
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- Remove those covers and unscrew:
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- Gently pry off the front bezel (sorry, forgot to take pics). -

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- Remove bluetooth module:
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- Re-attach the front bezel and re-insert the screws (sorry, forgot to take pics). -

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- It lives!
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- Always stress test ('stress -c 2' and xsensors. below 90C is ok) when replacing cpu paste/heatsink:
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- Not covered yet: -

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- Go to http://media.ccc.de/browse/congress/2013/30C3_-_5529_-_en_-_saal_2_-_201312271830_-_hardening_hardware_and_choosing_a_goodbios_-_peter_stuge.html - or directly to the video: http://mirror.netcologne.de/CCC/congress/2013/webm/30c3-5529-en-Hardening_hardware_and_choosing_a_goodBIOS_webm.webm. -

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- A lot of this tutorial is based on that video. Look towards the second half of the video to see how to do the above. -

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- Also not covered yet: -

- - -

- Extra notes -

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- EC: Cannot be removed but can be mitigated: it contains non-free - non-loadable code, but it has no access to the computer's RAM. - It has access to the on-switch of the wifi, bluetooth, modem and some - other power management features. The issue is that it has access to the - keyboard, however if the software security howto (not yet written) is followed correctly, - it won't be able to leak data to a local attacker. It has no network - access but it may still be able to leak data remotely, but that - requires someone to be nearby to recover the data with the help of an - SDR and some directional antennas[3]. -

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- Intel 82573 Ethernet controller - on the X60 seems safe, according to Denis. -

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- Risk level -

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- Further reading material (software security) -

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- References -

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[1] physical access

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- Explain that black hats, TAO, and so on might use a 0day to get in, - and explain that in this case it mitigates what the attacker can do. - Also the TAO do some evaluation before launching an attack: they take - the probability of beeing caught into account, along with the kind of - target. A 0day costs a lot of money, I heard that it was from 100000$ - to 400000$, some other websites had prices 10 times lower but that - but it was probably a typo. So if people increase their security it - makes it more risky and more costly to attack people. -

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[2] microphone

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- It's possible to turn headphones into a microphone, you could try - yourself, however they don't record loud at all. Also intel cards have - the capability to change a connector's function, for instance the - microphone jack can now become a headphone plug, that's called - retasking. There is some support for it in GNU/Linux but it's not very - well known. -

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[3] Video (CCC)

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- 30c3-5356-en-Firmware_Fat_Camp_webm.webm from the 30th CCC. While - their demo is experimental(their hardware also got damaged during the - transport), the spies probably already have that since a long time. - http://berlin.ftp.media.ccc.de/congress/2013/webm/30c3-5356-en-Firmware_Fat_Camp_webm.webm -

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- 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 for more information. -

- - - -- cgit v0.9.1