TF-M: PSA template

This sample provides a template for Arm Platform Security Architecture (PSA) best practices on nRF devices.

Requirements

The sample supports the following development kits:

Hardware platforms

PCA

Board name

Build target

nRF9160 DK

PCA10090

nrf9160dk_nrf9160

nrf9160dk_nrf9160_ns

nRF5340 DK

PCA10095

nrf5340dk_nrf5340

nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpuapp_ns

When built for an _ns build target, the sample is configured to compile and run as a non-secure application with Cortex-M Security Extensions enabled. Therefore, it automatically includes Trusted Firmware-M that prepares the required peripherals and secure services to be available for the application.

Overview

This sample uses Trusted Firmware-M, nRF Secure Immutable bootloader and MCUboot to demonstrate how to implement the best practices that comply with the Arm PSA requirements. It includes provisioning the device with keys and being able to perform a device firmware update. The sample prints information about the identity of the device and the firmware versions that are currently running.

Building and running

This sample can be found under samples/tfm/tfm_psa_template in the nRF Connect SDK folder structure.

When built as firmware image for the _ns build target, the sample has Cortex-M Security Extensions (CMSE) enabled and separates the firmware between Non-Secure Processing Environment (NSPE) and Secure Processing Environment (SPE). Because of this, it automatically includes the Trusted Firmware-M (TF-M). To read more about CMSE, see Processing environments.

To build the sample with Visual Studio Code, follow the steps listed on the How to build an application page in the nRF Connect for VS Code extension documentation. See Building and programming an application for other building and programming scenarios and Testing and debugging an application for general information about testing and debugging in the nRF Connect SDK.

The sample requires that the device is provisioned using the provisioning image sample. Build and flash the provisioning image sample to provision the device with the PSA root-of-trust security parameters.

west build -b nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpuapp nrf/samples/tfm/provisioning_image -d build_provisioning_image
west flash --erase -d build_provisioning_image

Build and flash the TF-M PSA template sample. Do not flash with --erase as this will erase the PSA platform security parameters and they will be lost.

west build -b nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpuapp_ns nrf/samples/tfm/tfm_psa_template
west flash

Testing

After programming the sample, the following output is displayed in the console:

*** Booting Zephyr OS build v3.2.0-rc3-510-g7c71945d42f6  ***
Attempting to boot slot 0.
Attempting to boot from address 0x8200.
Verifying signature against key 0.
Hash: 0xde...4b
Firmware signature verified.
Firmware version 1
*** Booting Zephyr OS build v3.2.0-rc3-510-g7c71945d42f6  ***
I: Starting bootloader
I: Swap type: none
I: Swap type: none
I: Bootloader chainload address offset: 0x28000
*** Booting Zephyr OS build v3.2.0-rc3-510-g7c71945d42f6  ***
build time: Nov  2 2022 16:26:33

FW info S0:
Magic: 0x281ee6de8fcebb4c00003502
Total Size: 60
Size: 0x00009658
Version: 1
address: 0x00008200
boot address: 0x00008200
Valid: 0x9102ffff (CONFIG_FW_INFO_VALID_VAL=0x9102ffff)

FW info S1:
Failed to retrieve fw_info for address 0x00018000

Active slot: S0

Requesting initial attestation token with 64 byte challenge
Received initial attestation token of 360 bytes.

0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7   8  9  A  B  C  D  E  F
D2 84 43 A1 01 26 A0 59  01 1C AA 3A 00 01 24 FF  |  ..C..&.Y...:..$.
58 40 00 11 22 33 44 55  66 77 88 99 AA BB CC DD  |  X@.."3DUfw......
EE FF 00 11 22 33 44 55  66 77 88 99 AA BB CC DD  |  ...."3DUfw......
EE FF 00 11 22 33 44 55  66 77 88 99 AA BB CC DD  |  ...."3DUfw......
EE FF 00 11 22 33 44 55  66 77 88 99 AA BB CC DD  |  ...."3DUfw......
EE FF 3A 00 01 24 FB 58  20 26 0A 95 20 6B F8 17  |  ..:..$.X &.. k..
3C 65 E9 12 C1 7F 12 57  C2 26 85 56 0E 27 FE 37  |  <e.....W.&.V.'.7
90 B7 67 FD 07 86 D8 E5  3A 3A 00 01 25 00 58 21  |  ..g.....::..%.X!
01 8B A0 C3 7E 96 62 29  C3 90 14 D9 E1 CF B6 6F  |  ....~.b).......o
71 07 37 76 BF B8 E3 96  94 7D 09 1E 37 07 21 DB  |  q.7v.....}..7.!.
84 3A 00 01 24 FA 58 20  AA AA AA AA AA AA AA AA  |  .:..$.X ........
BB BB BB BB BB BB BB BB  CC CC CC CC CC CC CC CC  |  ................
DD DD DD DD DD DD DD DD  3A 00 01 24 F8 20 3A 00  |  ........:..$. :.
01 24 F9 19 30 00 3A 00  01 24 FE 01 3A 00 01 25  |  .$..0.:..$..:..%
01 77 77 77 77 2E 74 72  75 73 74 65 64 66 69 72  |  .wwww.trustedfir
6D 77 61 72 65 2E 6F 72  67 3A 00 01 24 F7 71 50  |  mware.org:..$.qP
53 41 5F 49 4F 54 5F 50  52 4F 46 49 4C 45 5F 31  |  SA_IOT_PROFILE_1
3A 00 01 24 FC 70 30 36  30 34 35 36 35 32 37 32  |  :..$.p0604565272
38 32 39 31 30 30 58 40  BD 2F 65 4C 56 5A 9F 01  |  829100X@./eLVZ..
F2 D4 9C FB F4 25 9D C5  11 D0 57 B6 23 F1 D9 99  |  .....%....W.#...
2D A0 AC 39 F8 D8 39 A6  81 A7 E0 DC 8B BA A6 9F  |  -..9..9.........
EB AE 50 55 C3 DD 1F 6A  FF E3 AB 98 5D CC 2F E9  |  ..PU...j....]./.
54 77 40 BE D9 FF AE 7F                           |  Tw@.....

Firmware update

This sample supports firmware update of both the application and TF-M, and the second stage bootloader.

The firmware update process requires signature verification keys in order to sign the images used in the firmware update process. The nRF Secure Immutable bootloader and MCUboot will use signing keys that should not be used in production.

Example on how to generate and use keys:

Generate security keys if needed:

python3 bootloader/mcuboot/scripts/imgtool.py keygen -t ecdsa-p256 -k /home/user/ncs/_keys/mcuboot_priv.pem
python3 bootloader/mcuboot/scripts/imgtool.py keygen -t ecdsa-p256 -k /home/user/ncs/_keys/nsib_priv.pem

Update the child_image/mcuboot/prj.conf file to set the private signing key for MCUBoot:

CONFIG_BOOT_SIGNATURE_KEY_FILE="/home/user/ncs/_keys/mcuboot_priv.pem"
CONFIG_BOOT_SIGNATURE_TYPE_RSA=n
CONFIG_BOOT_SIGNATURE_TYPE_ECDSA_P256=y

Update the prj.conf file to set the private signing key for NSIB:

CONFIG_SB_SIGNING_KEY_FILE="/home/user/ncs/_keys/nsib_priv.pem"

See Signature keys for more information on how to generate and use keys for a project.

The bootloader and the application can be updated using the mcumgr command-line tool. See SMP Server Sample for installation and usage instructions.

Application and TF-M firmware update

Use firmware update to update the application and TF-M firmware. For the image to be updatable, the firmware image version CONFIG_MCUBOOT_IMAGE_VERSION has to be updated to a higher version. See Preventing downgrades using MCUboot for information on downgrade protection in MCUboot.

To upload a new application image, build an application with an updated image version.

west build -b nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpuapp_ns nrf/samples/tfm/tfm_psa_template -d build_update \
-DCONFIG_MCUBOOT_IMAGE_VERSION=\"1.2.3\"

Then upload the new application image to the device.

mcumgr --conntype serial --connstring dev=/dev/ttyACM2,baud=115200,mtu=512 image list
mcumgr --conntype serial --connstring dev=/dev/ttyACM2,baud=115200,mtu=512 image upload \
build_update/zephyr/app_update.bin

Once the new application image is uploaded, the hash of the image is shown in the image list. Flag the image to be tested on next reboot using its hash.

mcumgr --conntype serial --connstring dev=/dev/ttyACM2,baud=115200,mtu=512 image list
mcumgr --conntype serial --connstring dev=/dev/ttyACM2,baud=115200,mtu=512 image test <hash>

Trigger the application update by initiating a reset. The verification of the image will happen during the update process.

mcumgr --conntype serial --connstring dev=/dev/ttyACM2,baud=115200,mtu=512 reset

Bootloader firmware update

To upload a new bootloader image, build a bootloader targeting the correct bootloader slot with an updated firmware image version. The bootloader is placed in slot 0 by default, so enable building of the slot 1 bootloader.

west build -b nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpuapp_ns nrf/samples/tfm/tfm_psa_template -DCONFIG_BUILD_S1_VARIANT=y -Dmcuboot_CONFIG_FW_INFO_FIRMWARE_VERSION=2

List the current firmware images and upload a bootloader image that targets the non-active bootloader slot.

mcumgr --conntype serial --connstring dev=/dev/ttyACM2,baud=115200,mtu=512 image list
mcumgr --conntype serial --connstring dev=/dev/ttyACM2,baud=115200,mtu=512 image upload \
build/zephyr/signed_by_mcuboot_and_b0_s1_image_update.bin

Once the new bootloader image is uploaded, the hash of the image is shown in the image list. Flag the image to be tested on next reboot using its hash.

mcumgr --conntype serial --connstring dev=/dev/ttyACM2,baud=115200,mtu=512 image list
mcumgr --conntype serial --connstring dev=/dev/ttyACM2,baud=115200,mtu=512 image test <hash>

Trigger the bootloader update by initiating a reset. The verification of the image will happen during the update process.

mcumgr --conntype serial --connstring dev=/dev/ttyACM2,baud=115200,mtu=512 reset

Dependencies

This sample uses the TF-M module that can be found in the following location in the nRF Connect SDK folder structure:

  • modules/tee/tfm/

This sample uses the following libraries: