Linux kernel mirror (for testing) git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git
kernel os linux

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>

authored by

Yeoreum Yun and committed by
Jarkko Sakkinen
0e0546ea faddec84

+1 -1
+1 -1
drivers/firmware/arm_ffa/driver.c
··· 2059 2059 kfree(drv_info); 2060 2060 return ret; 2061 2061 } 2062 - module_init(ffa_init); 2062 + rootfs_initcall(ffa_init); 2063 2063 2064 2064 static void __exit ffa_exit(void) 2065 2065 {