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From: Andrew Hamilton <adhamilt@gmail.com>
To: grub-devel@gnu.org
Cc: daniel.kiper@oracle.com, Andrew Hamilton <adhamilt@gmail.com>
Subject: [PATCH] docs: Add Security Hardening Suggestions
Date: Sun,  7 Sep 2025 08:40:41 -0500	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20250907134041.2313-1-adhamilt@gmail.com> (raw)

Add some suggestions to the security section on maximizing the
security hardening of GRUB.

Signed-off-by: Andrew Hamilton <adhamilt@gmail.com>
---
 docs/grub.texi | 45 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 45 insertions(+)

diff --git a/docs/grub.texi b/docs/grub.texi
index 34b3484dc..55170e589 100644
--- a/docs/grub.texi
+++ b/docs/grub.texi
@@ -8675,6 +8675,7 @@ environment variables and commands are listed in the same order.
 * Measured Boot::                    Measuring boot components
 * Lockdown::                         Lockdown when booting on a secure setup
 * TPM2 key protector::               Managing disk key with TPM2 key protector
+* Hardening::                        Configuration and customization to maximize security
 @end menu
 
 @node Authentication and authorisation
@@ -9363,6 +9364,50 @@ which increases the risk of password leakage during the process. Moreover, the
 superuser list must be well maintained, and the password used cannot be
 synchronized with LUKS key rotation.
 
+@node Hardening
+@section Hardening
+
+Security hardening involves additional / optional configuration and
+customization steps to GRUB to maximize security. The extent to which
+hardening can be accomplished depends on the threats attempting to be
+mitigated for a given system / device, the device architecture, and number
+of GRUB features required. The following is a listing of hardening steps which
+may be considered:
+
+@itemize
+@item (EFI Only) Enable secure boot to enable lockdown mode. This will limit
+the attack surface of GRUB by limiting the commands and file systems
+supported. (@pxref{Lockdown})
+@item (EFI Only) No-Execute capability of memory segments will be configured
+by GRUB as indicated by the UEFI. This makes some classes of vulnerabilities
+more difficult by providing support for marking memory as either writable or
+executable.
+@item (EFI Only) While building GRUB, the stack protector feature may be
+enabled during the configuration step. This feature can make certain
+vulnerabilities caused by stack buffer overflows more difficult to exploit.
+This can be enabled by including the "--enable-stack-protector" flag to the
+configure script:
+@example
+# @kbd{./configure --enable-stack-protector}
+@end example
+Please reference the file @file{INSTALL} for detailed instructions on how to
+build GRUB.
+@item Minimize the installed modules included with the GRUB installation.
+For instance, if a specific file system is used for a given system, modules
+for other file systems may be excluded. @pxref{Modules} for a list of
+modules.
+@item Minimize boot sources. In the GRUB configuration, reduce the possible
+boot sources to the minimum needed for system operation. For instance, if
+booting only from an internal drive, remove support for network booting
+and booting from removable media.
+@item Disable network support in GRUB if not required. Ensure network
+interfaces are not configured in the GRUB configuration and consider
+setting environment variable @samp{feature_net_search_cfg} to @samp{n} in an
+embedded GRUB config file in order to disable attempting to use the
+network for obtaining a GRUB config file.
+@end itemize
+
+
 @node Platform limitations
 @chapter Platform limitations
 
-- 
2.47.2


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             reply	other threads:[~2025-09-07 13:41 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 4+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2025-09-07 13:40 Andrew Hamilton [this message]
2025-11-06 13:21 ` [PATCH] docs: Add Security Hardening Suggestions Daniel Kiper
2025-11-06 20:29   ` Daniel Kiper
2025-11-06 21:03     ` Andrew Hamilton

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