[RFC PATCH v2 1/4] security: ima: call ima_init() again at late_initcall_sync for defered TPM

[Paul Moore]

On Fri, Apr 24, 2026 at 4:58 PM Mimi Zohar <zohar at linux.ibm.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 2026-04-24 at 16:15 -0400, Paul Moore wrote:
> > On Fri, Apr 24, 2026 at 1:57 AM Yeoreum Yun <yeoreum.yun at arm.com> wrote:
> > > > On Thu, Apr 23, 2026 at 2:13 PM Yeoreum Yun <yeoreum.yun at arm.com> wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > Sounds good. Once the patch is posted, I’ll review it as well.
> > > > > Sorry again for the noise, and thanks for your patience ;)
> > > >
> > > > My apologies for not getting a chance to look at this patchset sooner.
> > > >
> > > > This seems like an obvious, perhaps even stupid, question, but I have
> > > > to ask: if IMA can be properly initialized via late_initcall_sync(),
> > > > why not simply do the initialization in late_initcall_sync() and drop
> > > > the late_initcall() initialization?
> > > >
> > > > Does any IMA functionality suffer if initialization waits until
> > > > late_initcall_sync()?  If so, it seems non-critical if waiting until
> > > > _sync() is acceptable, as it appears in these patches/comments.
> > >
> > > This is the way first patch did, and here is some discussion for this
> > > (Might you have seen, but in case of you missed):
> > >   - https://lore.kernel.org/all/a6a0e15286c983d720de227c6827adbe976c5b9b.camel@linux.ibm.com/
> >
> > Thanks for the pointer.
> >
> > Unfortunately, my concern remains the same: it's either "safe" to
> > initialize IMA at late_initcall_sync() or it isn't.  Attempting to
> > initialize IMA twice seems both odd and wrong.
>
> Agreed.  However, IMA should be initialized as soon as the TPM becomes
> available, not delayed.
>
> In patch 2/4 patch description, Jonathan describes the reasoning:
>
> Unfortunately some TPM drivers (such as Arm FF-A, or SPI attached TPM
> devices) are not reliably available during the initcall_late stage,
> resulting in a log error:
>
>   ima: No TPM chip found, activating TPM-bypass!
>
> and no measurements into the TPM by IMA. We can avoid this by doing IMA
> init in the initcall_late_sync stage, after the drivers have completed
> their init + registration.
>
> Rather than do this everywhere, and needlessly delay the initialisation
> of IMA when there is no need to do so, we continue to try to initialise
> at the earlier stage, only deferring to the later point if the TPM is
> not available yet.

Once again, that heavily implies that it is safe to initialize IMA in late-sync.

Put another way, what breaks if IMA's initialization is delayed to
late-sync?  If the answer is nothing, just move the initialization to
late-sync.  However, if something *is* broken and we are just doing
this because of TPM delays at boot, this patchset just creates
additional problems and we need a different solution.  I can't
envision a scenario where it makes sense to attempt initialization
twice.

> > I understand the need to ensure that the TPM is available, but if it
> > isn't safe to wait to initialize IMA at late_initcall_sync() then it
> > would seem like this is a bad option and we need another mechanism to
> > synchronize IMA with TPM devices.  If it is safe to initalize IMA in
> > late_initcall_sync(), just do that and be done with it.
>
> Within the same initcall level there is no way of ordering the initialization.
> Yeorum attempted to address the ordering issue in commit 0e0546eabcd6
> ("firmware: arm_ffa: Change initcall level of ffa_init() to rootfs_initcall"),
> which is being reverted in this patch set.
>
> Ordering within an initcall level needs to be fixed, but for now retrying at
> late_initcall_sync works for some, hopefully most, cases.

That's not a good answer.  Ignoring the TPM issue for a moment, can
you confirm that moving IMA's initialization to late-sync is safe?  If
not, why is this approach being considered?

-- 
paul-moore.com