Bringing Linux back to the BIOS with LinuxBoot

ABSTRACT

The LinuxBoot projects bring Linux back to the cloud servers' boot ROMs
by replacing nearly all of the vendor firmware with a reproducible
built Linux runtime that acts as a fast, flexible, and measured boot
loader. It has been years since any modern servers have supported Free
Firmware options like LinuxBIOS or coreboot, and as a result server
and cloud security has been dependent on unreviewable, closed source,
proprietary vendor firmware of questionable quality. With LinuxBoot
we are making it possible to take back control of our systems with Open
Source Software from very early in the boot process, helping build a
more trustworthy and secure cloud.

SPEAKER BIO

Trammell Hudson is a security researcher with Two Sigma Investments and
has been focused on firmware security topics for the past few years.
Previously he presented at CSAIL on Thunderstrike, the first firmware
vulnerability for MacBooks, and has been collaborating with Google and
Facebook, as well as the Mass Open Cloud project, to build slightly
more secure cloud servers with the LinuxBoot project.