Provided by: libvirt-clients-qemu_9.6.0-1ubuntu1.1_all 
NAME
virt-qemu-sev-validate - validate a domain AMD SEV launch measurement
SYNOPSIS
virt-qemu-sev-validate [OPTIONS]
DESCRIPTION
This program validates the reported measurement for a domain launched with AMD SEV. If the
program exits with a status of zero, the guest owner can be confident that their guest OS
is running under the protection offered by the SEV / SEV-ES platform.
Note that the level of protection varies depending on the AMD SEV platform generation and
describing the differences is outside the scope of this document.
For the results of this program to be considered trustworthy, it is required to be run on
a machine that is already trusted by the guest owner. This could be a machine that the
guest owner has direct physical control over, or it could be another virtual machine
protected by AMD SEV that has already had its launch measurement validated. Running this
program on the virtualization host will not produce an answer that can be trusted.
If told to connect to libvirt, it will refuse to use a libvirt connection that is local to
the machine, since that cannot be trusted. For the sake of testing or demonstration
purposes, however, it can be forced to run in this scenario using the --insecure flag. The
result will, of course, still not be trustworthy.
OPTIONS
Common options
-h, --help
Display command line help usage then exit.
-d, --debug
Show debug information while running
-q, --quiet
Don't print information about the attestation result.
Guest state options
These options provide information about the state of the guest that needs its boot
attested.
--measurement BASE64-STRING
The launch measurement reported by the hypervisor of the domain to be validated. The
measurement must be 48 bytes of binary data encoded as a base64 string.
--api-major VERSION
The SEV API major version of the hypervisor the domain is running on.
--api-minor VERSION
The SEV API major version of the hypervisor the domain is running on.
--build-id ID
The SEV build ID of the hypervisor the domain is running on.
--policy POLiCY
The policy bitmask associated with the session launch data of the domain to be validated.
Guest config options
These options provide items needed to calculate the expected domain launch measurement.
This will then be compared to the reported launch measurement.
-f PATH, --firmware=PATH
Path to the firmware loader binary. This is the EDK2 build that knows how to initialize
AMD SEV. For the validation to be trustworthy it important that the firmware build used
has no support for loading non-volatile variables from NVRAM, even if NVRAM is expose to
the guest.
-k PATH, --kernel=PATH
Path to the kernel binary if doing direct kernel boot.
-r PATH, --initrd=PATH
Path to the initrd binary if doing direct kernel boot. Defaults to zero length content if
omitted.
-e STRING, --cmdline=STRING
String containing any kernel command line parameters used during boot of the domain.
Defaults to the empty string if omitted.
-n COUNT, --num-cpus=COUNT
The number of virtual CPUs for the domain. This is required when the domain policy is set
to require SEV-ES.
-0 PATH, --vmsa-cpu0=PATH
Path to the VMSA initial state for the boot CPU. This is required when the domain policy
is set to require SEV-ES. The file contents must be exactly 4096 bytes in length.
-1 PATH, --vmsa-cpu1=PATH
Path to the VMSA initial state for the non-boot CPU. This is required when the domain
policy is set to require SEV-ES and the domain has more than one CPU present. The file
contents must be exactly 4096 bytes in length.
--tik PATH
TIK file for domain. This file must be exactly 16 bytes in size and contains the unique
transport integrity key associated with the domain session launch data. This is mutually
exclusive with the --tk argument.
--tek PATH
TEK file for domain. This file must be exactly 16 bytes in size and contains the unique
transport encryption key associated with the domain session launch data. This is mutually
exclusive with the --tk argument.
--tk PATH
TEK/TIK combined file for the domain. This file must be exactly 32 bytes in size, with the
first 16 bytes containing the TEK and the last 16 bytes containing the TIK. This is
mutually exclusive with the --tik and --tek arguments.
Libvirt options
These options are used when connecting to libvirt to automatically obtain state and
configuration information about the domain to be attested.
-c, --connect URI
Libvirt connection URI. For the validation to be trustworthy this must be a URI resolving
to a remote virtualization host. This requirement can be overridden using the --insecure
argument.
-o, --domain ID|NAME|UUID
Domain ID, or domain name or domain UUID. Used to identify which libvirt domain is to have
its launch measured. The domain must be running, and would usually have been started in a
paused state, to allow validation to be performed before guest CPUs begin execution.
-i, --insecure
Proceed even if usage scenario is known to be insecure. This allows the program to connect
to a local libvirt hypervisor and rely on file content from the virtualization host. It
also allows the validation to proceed even if the virtual machine CPUs are not in the
initial paused state. The result of the validation must not be trusted.
-g, --ignore-config
Do not attempt to sanity check the domain config. The default behaviour is to print out
errors if identifying configuration elements in the guest XML that would invalidate the
launch measurement. This can help the guest owner to understand any configuration mistakes
that have been made. If the --ignore-config argument is given, this sanity checking of
configuration will be skipped. The result is that the validation will likely be reported
as failed.
Secret injection options
These options provide a way to inject a secret if validation of the launch measurement
passes.
--inject-secret ALIAS-OR-GUID:PATH
Path to a file containing a secret to inject into the guest OS. Typical usage would be to
supply a password for unlocking the root filesystem full disk encryption. ALIAS can be one
of the well known secrets:
• luks-key - bytes to use as a key for unlocking a LUKS key slot. GUID of
736869e5-84f0-4973-92ec-06879ce3da0b.
Alternatively GUID refers to an arbitrary UUID of the callers choosing. The contents of
PATH are defined by the requirements of the associated GUID, and will used as-is without
modification. In particular be aware:
• Avoid unwanted trailing newline characters in PATH unless mandated by the GUID.
• Any trailing NUL byte must be explicitly included in PATH if mandated by the GUID.
This argument can be repeated multiple times, provided a different GUID is given for each
instance.
--secret-header PATH
Path to a file in which the injected secret header will be written in base64 format and
later injected into the domain. This is required if there is no connection to libvirt,
otherwise the secret will be directly injected.
--secret-payload PATH
Path to a file in which the injected secret payload will be written in base64 format and
later injected into the domain. This is required if there is no connection to libvirt,
otherwise the secret will be directly injected.
EXAMPLES
Fully offline execution
This scenario allows a measurement to be securely validated in a completely offline state
without any connection to the hypervisor host. All required data items must be provided as
command line parameters. This usage model is considered secure, because all input data is
provided by the user.
Validate the measurement of a SEV guest booting from disk:
# virt-qemu-sev-validate \
--firmware OVMF.sev.fd \
--tk this-guest-tk.bin \
--measurement Zs2pf19ubFSafpZ2WKkwquXvACx9Wt/BV+eJwQ/taO8jhyIj/F8swFrybR1fZ2ID \
--api-major 0 \
--api-minor 24 \
--build-id 13 \
--policy 3
Validate the measurement of a SEV guest with direct kernel boot:
# virt-qemu-sev-validate \
--firmware OVMF.sev.fd \
--kernel vmlinuz-5.11.12 \
--initrd initramfs-5.11.12 \
--cmdline "root=/dev/vda1" \
--tk this-guest-tk.bin \
--measurement Zs2pf19ubFSafpZ2WKkwquXvACx9Wt/BV+eJwQ/taO8jhyIj/F8swFrybR1fZ2ID \
--api-major 0 \
--api-minor 24 \
--build-id 13 \
--policy 3
Validate the measurement of a SEV-ES SMP guest booting from disk:
# virt-qemu-sev-validate \
--firmware OVMF.sev.fd \
--num-cpus 2 \
--vmsa-cpu0 vmsa0.bin \
--vmsa-cpu1 vmsa1.bin \
--tk this-guest-tk.bin \
--measurement Zs2pf19ubFSafpZ2WKkwquXvACx9Wt/BV+eJwQ/taO8jhyIj/F8swFrybR1fZ2ID \
--api-major 0 \
--api-minor 24 \
--build-id 13 \
--policy 7
Validate the measurement of a SEV-ES SMP guest booting from disk, with automatically
constructed VMSA:
# virt-qemu-sev-validate \
--firmware OVMF.sev.fd \
--num-cpus 2 \
--cpu-family 23 \
--cpu-model 49 \
--cpu-stepping 0 \
--tk this-guest-tk.bin \
--measurement Zs2pf19ubFSafpZ2WKkwquXvACx9Wt/BV+eJwQ/taO8jhyIj/F8swFrybR1fZ2ID \
--api-major 0 \
--api-minor 24 \
--build-id 13 \
--policy 7
Validate the measurement of a SEV guest booting from disk and inject a disk password on
success:
# virt-qemu-sev-validate \
--firmware OVMF.sev.fd \
--tk this-guest-tk.bin \
--measurement Zs2pf19ubFSafpZ2WKkwquXvACx9Wt/BV+eJwQ/taO8jhyIj/F8swFrybR1fZ2ID \
--api-major 0 \
--api-minor 24 \
--build-id 13 \
--policy 3 \
--inject-secret 736869e5-84f0-4973-92ec-06879ce3da0b:passwd.txt \
--secret-header secret-header.b64 \
--secret-payload secret-payload.b64
The secret-header.b64 and secret-payload.b64 files can now be sent to the virtualization
host for injection.
Fetch from remote libvirt
This scenario allows fetching certain data from a remote hypervisor via a connection to
libvirt. It will aid in debugging by analysing the guest configuration and reporting
anything that could invalidate the measurement of the guest. This usage model is
considered secure, because the limited information obtained from the untrusted hypervisor
cannot be used to change the result.
Validate the measurement of a SEV guest booting from disk:
# virt-qemu-sev-validate \
--connect qemu+ssh://root@some.remote.host/system \
--firmware OVMF.sev.fd \
--tk this-guest-tk.bin \
--domain fedora34x86_64
Validate the measurement of a SEV guest with direct kernel boot:
# virt-qemu-sev-validate \
--connect qemu+ssh://root@some.remote.host/system \
--firmware OVMF.sev.fd \
--kernel vmlinuz-5.11.12 \
--initrd initramfs-5.11.12 \
--cmdline "root=/dev/vda1" \
--tk this-guest-tk.bin \
--domain fedora34x86_64
Validate the measurement of a SEV-ES SMP guest booting from disk:
# virt-qemu-sev-validate \
--connect qemu+ssh://root@some.remote.host/system \
--firmware OVMF.sev.fd \
--num-cpus 2 \
--vmsa-cpu0 vmsa0.bin \
--vmsa-cpu1 vmsa1.bin \
--tk this-guest-tk.bin \
--domain fedora34x86_64
Validate the measurement of a SEV-ES SMP guest booting from disk, with automatically
constructed VMSA:
# virt-qemu-sev-validate \
--connect qemu+ssh://root@some.remote.host/system \
--firmware OVMF.sev.fd \
--cpu-family 23 \
--cpu-model 49 \
--cpu-stepping 0 \
--tk this-guest-tk.bin \
--domain fedora34x86_64
Validate the measurement of a SEV guest booting from disk and inject a disk password on
success:
# virt-qemu-sev-validate \
--connect qemu+ssh://root@some.remote.host/system \
--firmware OVMF.sev.fd \
--tk this-guest-tk.bin \
--domain fedora34x86_64 \
--inject-secret 736869e5-84f0-4973-92ec-06879ce3da0b:passwd.txt
Fetch from local libvirt
This scenario allows fetching all data from the local hypervisor via a connection to
libvirt. It is only to be used for the purpose of testing, debugging, or demonstrations,
because running on the local hypervisor is not a secure scenario. To enable this usage,
the --insecure flag must be specified. Given a pointer to the libvirt guest to validate,
all information needed to perform a validation, except the TIK/TEK pair can be acquired
automatically.
Validate the measurement of a SEV guest booting from disk:
# virt-qemu-sev-validate \
--insecure \
--tk this-guest-tk.bin \
--domain fedora34x86_64
Validate the measurement of a SEV guest with direct kernel boot:
# virt-qemu-sev-validate \
--insecure \
--tk this-guest-tk.bin \
--domain fedora34x86_64
Validate the measurement of a SEV-ES SMP guest booting from disk:
# virt-qemu-sev-validate \
--insecure \
--vmsa-cpu0 vmsa0.bin \
--vmsa-cpu1 vmsa1.bin \
--tk this-guest-tk.bin \
--domain fedora34x86_64
Validate the measurement of a SEV-ES SMP guest booting from disk, with automatically
constructed VMSA:
# virt-qemu-sev-validate \
--insecure \
--tk this-guest-tk.bin \
--domain fedora34x86_64
Validate the measurement of a SEV guest booting from disk and inject a disk password on
success:
# virt-qemu-sev-validate \
--insecure \
--tk this-guest-tk.bin \
--domain fedora34x86_64 \
--inject-secret 736869e5-84f0-4973-92ec-06879ce3da0b:passwd.txt
COMMON MISTAKES CHECKLIST
The complexity of configuring a guest and validating its boot measurement means it is very
likely to see the failure:
ERROR: Measurement does not match, VM is not trustworthy
This error message assumes the worst, but in most cases will failure will be a result of
either mis-configuring the guest, or passing the wrong information when trying to validate
it. The following information is a guide for what items to check in order to stand the
best chance of diagnosing the problem
• Check the VM configuration for the DH certificate and session blob in the libvirt guest
XML.
The content for these fields should be in base64 format, which is what sevctl session
generates. Other tools may generate the files in binary format, so ensure it has been
correctly converted to base64.
• Check the VM configuration policy value matches the session blob
The <policy> value in libvirt guest XML has to match the value passed to the sevctl
session command. If this is mismatched then the guest will not even start, and QEMU will
show an error such as:
sev_launch_start: LAUNCH_START ret=1 fw_error=11 'Bad measurement'
• Check the correct TIK/TEK keypair are passed
The TIK/TEK keypair are uniquely tied to each DH cert and session blob. Make sure that
the TIK/TEK keypair passed to this program the ones matched to the DH cert and session
blob configured for the libvirt guest XML. This is one of the most common mistakes.
Further ensure that the TIK and TEK files are not swapped.
• Check the firmware binary matches the one used to boot
The firmware binary content is part of the data covered by the launch measurement.
Ensure that the firmware binary passed to this program matches the one used to launch
the guest. The hypervisor host will periodically get software updates which introduce a
new firmware binary version.
• Check the kernel, initrd and cmdline match the one used to boot
If the guest is configured to use direct kernel boot, check that the kernel, initrd and
cmdline passed to this program match the ones used to boot the guest. In the kernel
cmdline whitespace must be preserved exactly, including any leading or trailing spaces.
• Check whether the kernel hash measurement is enabled
The kernelHashes property in the libvirt guest XML controls whether hashes of the
kernel, initrd and cmdline content are covered by the boot measurement. If enabled, then
the matching content must be passed to this program. UIf disabled, then the content must
NOT be passed.
• Check that the correct measurement hash is passed
The measurement hash includes a nonce, so it will be different on every boot attempt.
Thus when validating the measuremnt it is important ensure the most recent measurement
is used.
• Check the correct VMSA blobs / CPU SKU values for the host are used
The VMSA blobs provide the initial register state for the boot CPU and any additional
CPUs. One of the registers encodes the CPU SKU (family, model, stepping) of the physical
host CPU. Make sure that the VMSA blob used for validation is one that matches the SKU
of the host the guest is booted on. Passing the CPU SKU values directly to the tool can
reduce the likelihood of using the wrong ones.
• Check the CPU count is correct
When passing VMSA blobs for SEV-ES guests, the number of CPUs present will influence the
measurement result. Ensure that the correct vCPU count is used corresponding to the
guest boot attempt.
Best practice is to run this tool in completely offline mode and pass all information as
explicit command line parameters. When debugging failures, however, it can be useful to
tell it to connect to libvirt and fetch information. If connecting to a remote libvirt
instance, it will fetch any information that can be trusted, which is the basic VM launch
state data. It will also sanity check the XML configuration to identify some common
mistakes. If the --insecure flag is passed it can extract some configuration information
and use that for the attestation process.
If the mistake still can't be identified, then this tool can be run on the virtualization
host. In that scenario the only three command line parameters required are for the TIK,
TEK and libvirt domain name. It should be able to automatically determine all the other
information required. If it still reports a failure, this points very strongly to the
TIK/TEK pair not matching the configured DH certificate and session blob.
The --debug flag will display hashes and/or hex dumps for various pieces of information
used in the attestation process. Comparing the --debug output from running on the
hypervisor host, against that obtained when running in offline mode can give further
guidance to which parameter is inconsistent.
As mentioned earlier in this document, bear in mind that in general any attestation
answers obtained from running on the hypervisor host should not be trusted. So if a
configuration mistake is identified it is strongly recommended to re-run the attestation
in offline mode on a trusted machine.
EXIT STATUS
Upon successful attestation of the launch measurement, an exit status of 0 will be set.
Upon failure to attest the launch measurement one of the following codes will be set:
• 1 - Guest measurement did not validate
Assuming the inputs to this program are correct, the virtual machine launch has been
compromised and it should not be trusted henceforth.
• 2 - Usage scenario cannot be supported
The way in which this program has been invoked prevent it from being able to validate
the launch measurement.
• 3 - Usage scenario is not secure
The way in which this program has been invoked means that the result of any launch
measurement validation will not be secure.
The program can be reinvoked with --insecure argument to force a validation, however,
the results of this should not be trusted. This should only be used for testing,
debugging or demonstration purposes, never in a production deployment.
• 4 - Domain has incorrect configuration to be measured
The way in which the guest has been configured prevent this program from being able to
validate the launch measurement. Note that in general the guest configuration reported
by the hypervisor is not trustworthy, so it is possible this error could be a false
positive designed to cause a denial of service.
This program can be reinvoked with the --ignore-config argument to skip the sanity
checks on the domain XML. This will likely result in it failing with an exit code of 1
indicating the measurement is invalid
• 5 - Domain is in incorrect state to be measured
The domain has to be running in order to validate a launch measurement.
• 6 - unexpected error occurred in the code
A logic flaw in this program means it is unable to complete the validation of the
measurement. This is a bug which should be reported to the maintainers.
AUTHOR
Daniel P. Berrangé
BUGS
Please report all bugs you discover. This should be done via either:
1. the mailing list
https://libvirt.org/contact.html
2. the bug tracker
https://libvirt.org/bugs.html
Alternatively, you may report bugs to your software distributor / vendor.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2022 by Red Hat, Inc.
LICENSE
virt-qemu-sev-validate is distributed under the terms of the GNU LGPL v2.1+. This is free
software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
SEE ALSO
virsh(1), SEV launch security usage, https://libvirt.org/
VIRT-QEMU-SEV-VALIDATE(1)