TrenchBoot Progress For Adding More Security & Integrity To The Boot Process

TrenchBoot has been in development for several years now by Oracle, 3mdeb, and other stakeholders for providing greater security and integrity to the Linux boot process via measured launch of the OS using a Dynamic Root of Trust Measurement (DRTM) backed by Intel Trusted Execution Technology (TXT) and AMD Secure Startup. Much progress was made over 2023 while more work is ahead in 2024 for furthering the TrenchBoot efforts.

Maciej Pijanowski and Jagannathan Raman presented at FOSDEM 2024 last weekend around the state of the TrenchBoot project. Upstreaming the TrenchBoot dynamic launch Linux kernel support remains an ongoing affair and the Intel TXT-enabled patches are up to their seventh iteration. An NLNet Foundation grant meanwhile was secured to work on TrenchBoot for AMD with an upstream focus.

Given recent work on TrenchBoot and also on Qubes OS on integrating the technology into its new "Anti-Evil Maid" (AEM) feature, some of their future work is to include UEFI support as well as greater hardware support.

Those wanting to learn more about TrenchBoot and its recent successes and forward-looking work can see the FOSDEM.org presentation material. Those wishing to learn more about the TrenchBoot project in general can visit the project site at TrenchBoot.org.