Re: [PATCH v4 2/3] security: ima: introduce IMA_INIT_LATE_SYNC option

[Mimi Zohar]

On Mon, 2026-05-25 at 08:54 +0100, Yeoreum Yun wrote:
> To generate the boot_aggregate log in the IMA subsystem with TPM PCR values,
> the TPM driver must be built as built-in and
> must be probed before the IMA subsystem is initialized.
> 
> However, when the TPM device operates over the FF-A protocol using
> the CRB interface, probing fails and returns -EPROBE_DEFER if
> the tpm_crb_ffa device — an FF-A device that provides the communication
> interface to the tpm_crb driver — has not yet been probed.
> 
> To ensure the TPM device operating over the FF-A protocol with
> the CRB interface is probed before IMA initialization,
> the following conditions must be met:
> 
> 1. The corresponding ffa_device must be registered,
>    which is done via ffa_init().
> 
> 2. The tpm_crb_driver must successfully probe this device via
>    tpm_crb_ffa_init().
> 
> 3. The tpm_crb driver using CRB over FF-A can then
>    be probed successfully. (See crb_acpi_add() and
>    tpm_crb_ffa_init() for reference.)
> 
> Unfortunately, ffa_init(), tpm_crb_ffa_init(), and crb_acpi_driver_init() are
> all registered with device_initcall, which means crb_acpi_driver_init() may
> be invoked before ffa_init() and tpm_crb_ffa_init() are completed.
> 
> When this occurs, probing the TPM device is deferred.
> However, the deferred probe can happen after the IMA subsystem
> has already been initialized, since IMA initialization is performed
> during late_initcall, and deferred_probe_initcall() is performed
> at the same level.
> 
> And the similar situation is reported on TPM devices attached on SPI
> bus[0].
> 
> To resolve this, introduce IMA_INIT_LATE_SYNC option to initialise
> IMA at late_inicall_sync so that IMA is initialized with the TPM
> device probed deffered.

-> deferred

> 
> When this option is enabled, modules that access files in the
> initramfs through usermode helper calls such as request_module()
> during initcall must not be built-in. Otherwise, IMA may miss
> measuring those files since they're the file accesses before the

Reword or remove phrase starting with "since".

> initialisation of IMA [1].
> 
> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/aYXEepLhUouN5f99@xxxxxxxx/ [0]
> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/2b3782398cc17ce9d355490a0c42ebce9120a9ae.camel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx/ [1]
> Suggested-by: Mimi Zohar <zohar@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Signed-off-by: Yeoreum Yun <yeoreum.yun@xxxxxxx>

This version of the patch drops differentiating the boot_aggregate record based
on initcall as was posted in "[RFC PATCH v3 1/4] lsm: Allow LSMs to register for
late_initcall_sync init".  Being able to differentiate the initcalls is need by
the remote attestation services.

Mimi