linux-elf-binary-signer

✒️ Adding digital signature into ELF binary files.

Created by : Mr Dk.

2020 / 04 / 25 11:16

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About

A tool for protecting integrity of ELF binary files. It extracts the .text section of an ELF, and digitally signs it with RSA key. Finally, the program appends the signature data as another section.

For a Linux kernel with signature verification module, during the process of execve() system call, it will extract signed section and signature section, and verify the integrity of the ELF file. If it cannot pass the verification, the ELF will not be executed. The public key certificate for verification should be compiled with Linux kernel together.

Build the Tool

To build the program, install the dependencies firstly:

$ sudo apt install libssl-dev openssl

To check the signature result, you also need binutils. But it is not necessary for running the program.

$ sudo apt install binutils

Then, build the tool by make:

$ make
cc -o elf-sign elf_sign.c -lcrypto
./elf-sign.signed sha256 certs/kernel_key.pem certs/kernel_key.pem elf-sign
 --- 64-bit ELF file, version 1 (CURRENT), little endian.
 --- 29 sections detected.
 --- [Library dependency]: libcrypto.so.1.1
 --- [Library dependency]: libc.so.6
 --- Section 0014 [.text] detected.
 --- Length of section [.text]: 10223
 --- Signature size of [.text]: 465
 --- Writing signature to file: .text_sig
 --- Removing temporary signature file: .text_sig

The elf-sign.signed ELF binary file has already been signed by the private key in certs/kernel_key.pem, so it can pass OS's verification to sign the newly built elf-sign. Then, with the signed elf-sign, you can sign other ELF binary files on your machine.

If you want to generate your own key, you will need to sign the elf-sign binary by your own key on a kernel without signature verification, because the newly built elf-sign has no signature section. After signing, a signature section will be inserted and then it can be executed by a kernel with signature verification.

If you just want to test the function, use the given elf-sign.signed to sign elf-sign after building (which will be done automatically by Makefile through make command). The elf-sign.signed has been signed with keys in certs/kernel_key.pem and it can be directly executed on a kernel with signature verification to sign your elf-sign.

Usage

Show the helping information:

$ ./elf-sign
Usage: elf-sign [-h] <hash-algo> <key> <x509> <elf-file> [<dest-file>]
  -h,         display the help and exit

Sign the <elf-file> to an optional <dest-file> with
private key in <key> and public key certificate in <x509>
and the digest algorithm specified by <hash-algo>. If no 
<dest-file> is specified, the <elf-file> will be backup to 
<elf-file>.old, and the original <elf-file> will be signed.

Sign an existing ELF file in repository:

$ ./elf-sign sha256 certs/kernel_key.pem certs/kernel_key.pem \
    test/func/hello-gcc hello-gcc
 --- 64-bit ELF file, version 1 (CURRENT), little endian.
 --- 29 sections detected.
 --- [Library dependency]: libc.so.6
 --- Section 0014 [.text] detected.
 --- Length of section [.text]: 418
 --- Signature size of [.text]: 465
 --- Writing signature to file: .text_sig
 --- Removing temporary signature file: .text_sig

To check the result, use readelf or objdump tool from binutils:

$ readelf -a hello-gcc
...
Section Headers:
  [Nr] Name              Type             Address           Offset
       Size              EntSize          Flags  Link  Info  Align
...
  [29] .text_sig         PROGBITS         0000000000000000  000020c0
       00000000000001d1  0000000000000000   O       0     0     8
...

$ objdump -s hello-gcc
...
Contents of section .text_sig:
 0000 308201cd 06092a86 4886f70d 010702a0  0.....*.H.......
 0010 8201be30 8201ba02 0101310d 300b0609  ...0......1.0...
 0020 60864801 65030402 01300b06 092a8648  `.H.e....0...*.H
 0030 86f70d01 07013182 01973082 01930201  ......1...0.....
 0040 01306e30 56311130 0f060355 040a0c08  .0n0V1.0...U....
 0050 57617463 68446f67 31193017 06035504  WatchDog1.0...U.
 0060 030c1045 4c462076 65726966 69636174  ...ELF verificat
 0070 696f6e31 26302406 092a8648 86f70d01  ion1&0$..*.H....
 0080 09011617 6d726472 6976696e 67647563  ....mrdrivingduc
 0090 6b40676d 61696c2e 636f6d02 144879f3  k@gmail.com..Hy.
...

Test

ELF Layout

Directory test/func/ contains several simple ELF files with different layout, and we are happy to gather more files with different ELF layout.

hello-gcc is built from a very simple C program from GCC compiler:

#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
    printf("Hello world\n");
    return 0;
}

hello-golang is built from a very simple Golang program from Golang compiler:

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
    fmt.Println("Hello world!")
}

You can see the different layouts through readelf -S. The elf-sign program should support both of the layouts. And we are looking for more different ELF layouts.

Dynamic Linking Example

Directory test/so/ contains a program so-test which need to be dynamically linked by libtest.so. To build and run the program and the shared objects:

$ cd test/so

$ make
cc test.c -fPIC -shared -o libtest.so
chmod 644 libtest.so
cc so_test.c -L. -ltest -o so-test

$ sudo cp libtest.so /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu

$ sudo ldconfig

$ strings /etc/ld.so.cache | grep libtest
libtest.so
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libtest.so

$ ./so-test 
Dynamic linking successfully!

Generate Keys

Generate Keys By Yourself

Firstly, configure some basic information of the key in certs/x509.genkey:

[ req ]
default_bits = 2048
distinguished_name = req_distinguished_name
prompt = no
string_mask = utf8only
x509_extensions = myexts

[ req_distinguished_name ]
O = WatchDog
CN = ELF verification
emailAddress = mrdrivingduck@gmail.com

[ myexts ]
basicConstraints=critical,CA:FALSE
keyUsage=digitalSignature
subjectKeyIdentifier=hash
authorityKeyIdentifier=keyid

Then, generate the key through openssl command:

$ cd certs
$ openssl req -new -nodes -utf8 -sha256 -days 36500 -batch -x509 \
    -config x509.genkey -outform PEM
    -out kernel_key.pem -keyout kernel_key.pem
Generating a RSA private key
........+++++
........................................+++++
writing new private key to 'kernel_key.pem'
-----
$ cd ..

This is the file for signing a signature, containing not only private key but also public key certificate. Also, the file should be compiled with kernel as a built-in key for signature verification.

Generate Keys Through Let's Encrypt

See the website of Let's Encrypt and use Certbot to generate private key and public key certificate.

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Contributors

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License

Copyright © 2020, Jingtang Zhang, Hua Zong. (MIT License)

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