RedHat support of tboot, now and forward
We are evaluating boot integrity options for RHEL 8.10 (and planning for 9.x/10) on Supermicro servers (Intel Xeon Scalable, UEFI), and need Red Hat's official support position on tboot / Intel TXT.
KB articles 2217041 ("tboot not supported in RHEL installed with UEFI") and 2464721 ("On RHEL installed with UEFI, tboot must be uninstalled before enabling TPM/TXT hardware") state that tboot is not supported on UEFI installs. However, both were written around 2016 and focus on RHEL 6/7, and the tboot package still ships in RHEL 8 and 9. We need to know whether that guidance is still current.
Please confirm:
- Is tboot with Intel TXT on a UEFI system, with Secure Boot disabled, a supported configuration on RHEL 8.10 and RHEL 9.x?
- If yes, is a custom-built GRUB EFI image containing the multiboot2 module (required for tboot on UEFI) also supported, or only the stock signed GRUB?
- Do KB 2217041 and 2464721 still reflect Red Hat's current position for RHEL 8/9?
- What is the lifecycle status of the tboot package: is it deprecated, and is it included in RHEL 10?
- For measured/trusted boot on UEFI systems, does Red Hat recommend UEFI Secure Boot plus TPM-based measured boot and attestation (e.g., Keylime) instead of tboot/TXT?
Please include links to the documentation or KB articles that reflect the answers so we can reference them internally.
Responses