I consider bootloader attacks a very low-probability threat, and quite honestly I don't trust the average board vendor to produce anything that's actually secure anyway. If I were in the habit of carrying a laptop back and forth across international borders I might feel differently, but for a desktop stuck in a room in Canada that hardly anyone enters when I'm not present, Secure Boot is a major hassle in return for a small security gain. So I just don't bother.
this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2024
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You have to turn off Secure Boot to enable hibernation, and I value hibernation enough to do so.
This is patently false. Secure boot and hibernation are not mutually exclusive.
While I believe you, I haven't been able to enable hibernation with it on.
It's a kernel build config. Debian for one ships with support disabled due to security concerns.
So I'd have to rebuild the kernel, not just provide a kernel argument? That's definitely not a step I'm ready for.
Not mutually exclusive, but it's highly probable that if you're running a mainstream distro, the default kernel is in lockdown mode, preventing hibernation while secure boot is enabled.
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I have my home folder encrypted and I enter my password on boot. I'm not really sure what benefits Secure Boot has in environments where you have to enter your password anyway. And in environments where you don't have to enter your password, someone could just steal your system anyway and boot it to get your data.
Secureboot is meant to help protect you against the evil maid attack. IE someone with physical access to your computer can compromise your boot loader with a keylogger that can capture your encryption password so that when they return they can gain access to your computer as they now know your password. Though the vast majority of people just don't need to worry about that level of attack so I have never really bothered with secureboot.
The thing is... If someone has access to your system enough to replace your bootloader, they could probably just slip a USB keylogger between your keyboard and computer. Or set up a small hidden camera. Or plug all your devices into a raspberry pi to spoof the login screen.
It strikes me as odd that people assume that an attacker with a few hours physical access is going to bother going down the "change the bootloader" route when there are other, easier routes available.
Ironically, the only practical use case I can see for Secure Boot is when you have a dual boot setup where you don't trust one of the OSes. Which I'm betting wasn't Microsoft's intention at all.
No point in putting locks on your house, because an attacker can just drive their car through your front door.
The attacks you mention have their own ways of being detected: usually eyeballs. But eyeballs can't help you against something hiding in your bootloader. So Secure Boot was made.
And I don't really follow your dual boot claim. If you don't trust one of the OSes, and you boot it up on your hw, you're already hosed. At that point it can backdoor your bootloader and compromise your other OS. Secure Boot prevents malicious OSes from being booted, it can't help you if you willingly boot a malicious OS.
Just because they can do X doesn't mean you shouldn't protect against Y.
Just as an example scenario, say border guards took my laptop out of my eyesight. A camera or USB keylogger won't do anything in that case. Hijacking my bootloader though potentially gives them access to my machine without me having any clue.
Secure Boot is useful and worth setting up. But everyone has to decide their own level of comfort when it comes to security.
At the point where the feds are paying Israelis millions to break your boot shit, they're paying dudes to watch you type in your password or any number of other things. I'd argue as long as you're not among the [number of prey] the predators are looking to take down at the back, for whatever category of shit you're in, you're fine
And if you are?
Disconnect
Just use disk encryption and be done
Now I'm not very smart, but I see no purpose of it, so I just turn it off so it doesn't fuck with my ability to boot.