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Don't like Secure Boot? Don't buy a Chromebook.
(Edit: It's been suggested that the title of this could give the wrong impression. "Don't like Secure Boot? That's not a reason to buy a Chromebook" may have been better)
People are, unsurprisingly, upset that Microsoft have imposed UEFI Secure Boot on the x86 market. A situation in which one company gets to determine which software will boot on systems by default is obviously open to abuse. What's more surprising is that many of the people who are upset about this are completely fine with encouraging people to buy Chromebooks.
Out of the box, Chromebooks are even more locked down than Windows 8 machines. The Chromebook firmware validates the kernel, and the kernel verifies the filesystem. Want to run a version of Chrome you've built yourself? Denied. Thankfully, Google have provided a way around this - you can (depending on the machine) either flip a physical switch or perform a special keystroke in the firmware to disable the validation. Doing so deletes all your data in the process, in order to avoid the situation where a physically present attacker wants to steal your data or backdoor your system unnoticed, but after that it'll boot any OS you want. The downside is that you've lost the security that you previously had. If a remote attacker manages to replace your kernel with a backdoored one, the firmware will boot it anyway. Want the same level of security as the stock firmware? You can't. There's no way for you to install your own signing keys, and Google won't sign third party binaries. Chromebooks are either secure and running Google's software, or insecure and running your software.
Much like Chromebooks, Windows 8 certified systems are required to permit the user to disable Secure Boot. In contrast to Chromebooks, Windows 8 certified systems are required to permit the user to install their own keys. And, unlike Google, Microsoft will sign alternative operating systems. Windows 8 certified systems provide greater user freedom than Chromebooks.
Some people don't like Secure Boot because they don't trust Microsoft. If you trust Google more, then a Chromebook is a reasonable choice. But some people don't like Secure Boot because they see it as an attack on user freedom, and those people should be willing to criticise Google's stance. Unlike Microsoft, Chromebooks force the user to choose between security and freedom. Nobody should be forced to make that choice.
(Updated to add that some Chromebooks have a software interface for disabling validation)
People are, unsurprisingly, upset that Microsoft have imposed UEFI Secure Boot on the x86 market. A situation in which one company gets to determine which software will boot on systems by default is obviously open to abuse. What's more surprising is that many of the people who are upset about this are completely fine with encouraging people to buy Chromebooks.
Out of the box, Chromebooks are even more locked down than Windows 8 machines. The Chromebook firmware validates the kernel, and the kernel verifies the filesystem. Want to run a version of Chrome you've built yourself? Denied. Thankfully, Google have provided a way around this - you can (depending on the machine) either flip a physical switch or perform a special keystroke in the firmware to disable the validation. Doing so deletes all your data in the process, in order to avoid the situation where a physically present attacker wants to steal your data or backdoor your system unnoticed, but after that it'll boot any OS you want. The downside is that you've lost the security that you previously had. If a remote attacker manages to replace your kernel with a backdoored one, the firmware will boot it anyway. Want the same level of security as the stock firmware? You can't. There's no way for you to install your own signing keys, and Google won't sign third party binaries. Chromebooks are either secure and running Google's software, or insecure and running your software.
Much like Chromebooks, Windows 8 certified systems are required to permit the user to disable Secure Boot. In contrast to Chromebooks, Windows 8 certified systems are required to permit the user to install their own keys. And, unlike Google, Microsoft will sign alternative operating systems. Windows 8 certified systems provide greater user freedom than Chromebooks.
Some people don't like Secure Boot because they don't trust Microsoft. If you trust Google more, then a Chromebook is a reasonable choice. But some people don't like Secure Boot because they see it as an attack on user freedom, and those people should be willing to criticise Google's stance. Unlike Microsoft, Chromebooks force the user to choose between security and freedom. Nobody should be forced to make that choice.
(Updated to add that some Chromebooks have a software interface for disabling validation)
no subject
(Anonymous) 2013-02-04 10:44 pm (UTC)(link)The major inconvenience here is that the keys live in a read-only firmware region so you need to defeat the write protection first which involves opening the case. Of course devices are all slightly different in how they implement write protection -- some require removing a screw and others use a jumper -- and the specifics for each board are not documented well enough yet but that is something we can and will fix Real Soon Now.
Supporting a user-provided key in developer mode that would only boot user-signed kernels is something we hope to do for future devices, but it has not happened yet. It is certainly fair to complain that the process is rather painful right now.
It is also worth mentioning that the entire firmware stack is as open as possible so if someone is not satisfied with what is provided they can build their own. This is obviously only useful to a really small/brave set of people and, just as with replacing the keys, it means you will no longer be able to boot official Chrome OS images unless you were smart enough to back up the firmware first.
--Duncan Laurie
no subject
(Anonymous) 2013-02-05 08:53 am (UTC)(link)I would prefer not to have to nuke the internal firmware to run owns since when it comes to disposing of resetting to factory quickly would be a good thing.