Author: Trammel Hudson (Two Sigma), Ron Minnich
Presented at: 34C3, 12/29/2017
Abstract: The NERF and Heads projects bring Linux back to the cloud servers’ boot ROMs by replacing nearly all of the vendor firmware with a reproducible built Linux runtime that acts as a fast, flexible, and measured boot loader. It has been years since any modern servers have supported Free Firmware options like LinuxBIOS or coreboot, and as a result server and cloud security has been dependent on unreviewable, closed source, proprietary vendor firmware of questionable quality. With Heads on NERF, we are making it possible to take back control of our systems with Open Source Software from very early in the boot process, helping build a more trustworthy and secure cloud.
