About SEDutil

The sedutil project provides a CLI tool (sedutil-cli) capable of setting up and managing self encrypting drives (SEDs) that comply with the TCG OPAL 2.00 standard. This project also provides a pre-boot authentication image (linuxpba) which can be loaded onto an encrypted disk's shadow MBR. This pre-boot authentication image allows the user enter their password and unlock SED drives during the boot process. Using this tool can make data on the drive inaccessible!

Setup

To configure a drive, load a compatible RECOVERY image onto a USB drive with the following commands:

curl -L -o RESCUE64-1.15.1-87-SHA512.img.gz https://github.com/ladar/sedutil/releases/download/1.15.1-87/RESCUE64-1.15.1-87-SHA512.img.gz
gunzip RESCUE64-1.15.1-87-SHA512.img.gz
sudo dd if=RESCUE64-1.15.1-87-SHA512.img of=/dev/sd? bs=1k
sudo eject /dev/sd?

Be sure to replace the ? with the appropriate device letter. After creating the boot stick, reboot the target computer. Ensure the computer has UEFI and CSM support enabled before booting. When the recovery image has finished booting, you will see a login prompt. Type root to login and begin the setup process. To configure your drive run the following commands:

gunzip /usr/sedutil/UEFI64-*.img.gz

sedutil-cli --initialsetup PASSWORD /dev/nvme?
sedutil-cli --enablelockingrange 0 PASSWORD /dev/nvme?
sedutil-cli --setlockingrange 0 LK Admin1 PASSWORD /dev/nvme?
sedutil-cli --setmbrdone off Admin1 PASSWORD /dev/nvme?
sedutil-cli --loadpbaimage PASSWORD /usr/sedutil/UEFI64-*.img /dev/nvme?
sedutil-cli --setsidpassword PASSWORD PASSWORD /dev/nvme?
sedutil-cli --setmbrdone on Admin1 PASSWORD /dev/nvme?
poweroff

And the setup process is complete. Be sure to replace the ? with the drive number (typically 0). If you aren't using an NVME drive, update the entire device path accordingly. Replace PASSWORD with your own randomly generated string of 40 or more characters. Note that if you want to setup a unique SID password, which lacks administrative/locking perissions, but is capable of wiping the drive, then you should replace the second instance of PASSWORD with the a unique value during the --setsidpassword step.

User Passwords

If you would like to create additional "user" passwords, you can run the following commands. These commands will setup password(s) capable of unlocking a device, but which lack the authority to perform administrative functions. This step is entirely optional.

sedutil-cli --setPassword ADMIN-PASSWORD User1 USER-PASSWORD /dev/nvme?
sedutil-cli --addUserToLockingACEs User1 ADMIN-PASSWORD /dev/nvme?
sedutil-cli --enableUser ADMIN-PASSWORD User1 /dev/nvme?

As with the setup process, be sure to replace the ? with the drive number (typically 0). If you aren't using an NVME drive, update the entire device path accordingly. Replace USER-PASSWORD with your own randomly generated string of 40 or more characters. Replace ADMIN-PASSWORD with the password you created during the setup phase. This will grant the newly created user permission to unlock the device.

Origin

This version of sedutil is based off the original @dta implementation. A number of bug fixes, security patches, and pull requests were incorporated by @cyrilvanersche and then subsequently @ckamm. Most notably a USERID (aka Admin1) is not required by some of the sedutil-cli operations.

Notable Differences

Unique to this repo are the following modifications:

• Uses SHA512 instead of SHA1 when deriving the encryption key (see backwards compatibility below).
• The boot authenticator allows a maximum of 3 password entry attempts per boot attempt.
• Small user interface improvements/cleanup.

Backwards Compatibility

By default SHA512 is used. If your configuring a drive for the first time this is appropriate. For those wanting to use tools and boot images in this repo with drives that have already been configured using a different version of sedutil, be sure to download the SHA1 release files. If you want to compile your own binaries using SHA1, then you will need to replace &cf_sha512 with &cf_sha1 on this line before you begin the build process.

Build Process

First install the required packages to build this project, on ubuntu::

sudo apt install autoconf nasm

To compile your own version of sedutil you will need the standard development tools, an internet connection, and ~10 GB of disk space. Provided those requirements are met, you can simply run the following command:

git clone https://github.com/ladar/sedutil/ && cd sedutil && autoreconf --install && ./configure && make all && cd images && ./getresources && ./buildpbaroot && ./buildbios && ./buildUEFI64 && mkdir UEFI64 && mv UEFI64-1.15*.img.gz UEFI64 && ./buildrescue Rescue32 && ./buildrescue Rescue64 && cd ..

Or if you prefer a less compact version of the above command sequence:

git clone https://github.com/ladar/sedutil/
cd sedutil
autoreconf --install
./configure
make all
cd images
./getresources
./buildpbaroot
./buildbios
./buildUEFI64
mkdir UEFI64
mv UEFI64-1.15*.img.gz UEFI64
./buildrescue Rescue32
./buildrescue Rescue64
cd ..

The various recovery and boot images will be located in the images directory.

Work in Progress

I hope to implement support for chain loading a Linux distros. I have experimented with a couple of patches that accomplish this, albeit with serious caveats that sitll need to be addressed before I can commit them to this repo.

Testing

I have only tested the boot images/release files on a ThinkPad with a Samsung EVO 970 NVMe drive. My testing has also focused primarily on the 64 bit UEFI images. While the other variants should work without issue, you should exercise caution, and if possible, test the release on a computer with data that is expendable.