linux/drivers/firmware/arm_ffa
Yeoreum Yun 0e0546eabc firmware: arm_ffa: Change initcall level of ffa_init() to rootfs_initcall
The Linux IMA (Integrity Measurement Architecture) subsystem used for
secure boot, file integrity, or remote attestation cannot be a loadable
module for few reasons listed below:

 o Boot-Time Integrity: IMA’s main role is to measure and appraise files
 before they are used. This includes measuring critical system files during
 early boot (e.g., init, init scripts, login binaries). If IMA were a
 module, it would be loaded too late to cover those.

 o TPM Dependency: IMA integrates tightly with the TPM to record
 measurements into PCRs. The TPM must be initialized early (ideally before
 init_ima()), which aligns with IMA being built-in.

 o Security Model: IMA is part of a Trusted Computing Base (TCB). Making it
 a module would weaken the security model, as a potentially compromised
 system could delay or tamper with its initialization.

IMA must be built-in to ensure it starts measuring from the earliest
possible point in boot which inturn implies TPM must be initialised and
ready to use before IMA.

To enable integration of tpm_event_log with the IMA subsystem, the TPM
drivers (tpm_crb and tpm_crb_ffa) also needs to be built-in. However with
FF-A driver also being initialised at device initcall level, it can lead to
an initialization order issue where:
 - crb_acpi_driver_init() may run before tpm_crb_ffa_driver()_init and
   ffa_init()
 - As a result, probing the TPM device via CRB over FFA is deferred
 - ima_init() (called as a late initcall) runs before deferred probe
   completes, IMA fails to find the TPM and logs the below error:

   |  ima: No TPM chip found, activating TPM-bypass!

Eventually it fails to generate boot_aggregate with PCR values.

Because of the above stated dependency, the ffa driver needs to initialised
before tpm_crb_ffa module to ensure IMA finds the TPM successfully when
present.

[ jarkko: reformatted some of the paragraphs because they were going past
  the 75 character boundary. ]

Signed-off-by: Yeoreum Yun <yeoreum.yun@arm.com>
Reviewed-by: Mimi Zohar <zohar@linux.ibm.com>
Reviewed-by: Sudeep Holla <sudeep.holla@arm.com>
Reviewed-by: Jarkko Sakkinen <jarkko@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Jarkko Sakkinen <jarkko@kernel.org>
2025-07-23 02:23:18 +03:00
..
bus.c firmware: arm_ffa: Set dma_mask for ffa devices 2025-02-28 11:20:06 +00:00
common.h firmware: arm_ffa: Split bus and driver into distinct modules 2024-05-29 23:23:25 +01:00
driver.c firmware: arm_ffa: Change initcall level of ffa_init() to rootfs_initcall 2025-07-23 02:23:18 +03:00
Kconfig
Makefile firmware: arm_ffa: Split bus and driver into distinct modules 2024-05-29 23:23:25 +01:00
smccc.c