Booting a Linux Kernel in a Higher Privilege Level
summary
Demonstrates a working prototype that boots a minimal Linux kernel inside a higher-privilege Virtual Trust Level 1 (VTL1) on Hyper‑V, using Hyper‑V’s VSM features, EPT/MAP protections and a small VSM boot driver in the guest; reserves secure memory, copies an uncompressed vmlinux from initramfs, populates per‑CPU context and issues VTL hypercalls to start CPUs, then returns to VTL0 while keeping VTL1 quiet by suspending ticks. Code is on GitHub (heki-linux/lvbs-linux) and the multi‑CPU boot succeeds after hacks to idle and hotplug handling.
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chapters (11)
- 0:00Linux virtualization security intro
- 1:05Project goals and architecture
- 5:28Hypervisor and trust levels
- 10:13Transitions between trust levels
- 16:09Booting minimal secure kernel
- 21:50Reserving memory for secure kernel
- 23:37Primary CPU boot in VTL1
- 27:14Init process and interrupts
- 31:06Secondary CPUs boot in VTL1
- 34:38Current status and future work
- 35:41Q&A
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