This repo is for review of requests for signing shim. To create a request for review:

  • clone this repo
  • edit the template below
  • add the shim.efi to be signed
  • add build logs
  • add any additional binaries/certificates/SHA256 hashes that may be needed
  • commit all of that
  • tag it with a tag of the form "myorg-shim-arch-YYYYMMDD"
  • push that to github
  • file an issue at https://github.com/rhboot/shim-review/issues with a link to your tag
  • approval is ready when the "accepted" label is added to your issue

Note that we really only have experience with using GRUB2 or systemd-boot on Linux, so asking us to endorse anything else for signing is going to require some convincing on your part.

Check the docs directory in this repo for guidance on submission and getting your shim signed.

Here's the template:


What organization or people are asking to have this signed?


[your text here]


What product or service is this for?


[your text here]


What's the justification that this really does need to be signed for the whole world to be able to boot it?


[your text here]


Why are you unable to reuse shim from another distro that is already signed?


[your text here]


Who is the primary contact for security updates, etc.?

The security contacts need to be verified before the shim can be accepted. For subsequent requests, contact verification is only necessary if the security contacts or their PGP keys have changed since the last successful verification.

An authorized reviewer will initiate contact verification by sending each security contact a PGP-encrypted email containing random words. You will be asked to post the contents of these mails in your shim-review issue to prove ownership of the email addresses and PGP keys.


  • Name:
  • Position:
  • Email address:
  • PGP key fingerprint:

(Key should be signed by the other security contacts, pushed to a keyserver like keyserver.ubuntu.com, and preferably have signatures that are reasonably well known in the Linux community.)


Who is the secondary contact for security updates, etc.?


  • Name:
  • Position:
  • Email address:
  • PGP key fingerprint:

(Key should be signed by the other security contacts, pushed to a keyserver like keyserver.ubuntu.com, and preferably have signatures that are reasonably well known in the Linux community.)


Were these binaries created from the 15.8 shim release tar?

Please create your shim binaries starting with the 15.8 shim release tar file: https://github.com/rhboot/shim/releases/download/15.8/shim-15.8.tar.bz2

This matches https://github.com/rhboot/shim/releases/tag/15.8 and contains the appropriate gnu-efi source.


[your text here]


URL for a repo that contains the exact code which was built to get this binary:


[your url here]


What patches are being applied and why:


[your text here]


Do you have the NX bit set in your shim? If so, is your entire boot stack NX-compatible and what testing have you done to ensure such compatibility?

See https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/hardware-dev-center/nx-exception-for-shim-community/ba-p/3976522 for more details on the signing of shim without NX bit.


[your text here]


If shim is loading GRUB2 bootloader what exact implementation of Secureboot in GRUB2 do you have? (Either Upstream GRUB2 shim_lock verifier or Downstream RHEL/Fedora/Debian/Canonical-like implementation)


[your text here]


If shim is loading GRUB2 bootloader and your previously released shim booted a version of GRUB2 affected by any of the CVEs in the July 2020, the March 2021, the June 7th 2022, the November 15th 2022, or 3rd of October 2023 GRUB2 CVE list, have fixes for all these CVEs been applied?


[your text here]


If shim is loading GRUB2 bootloader, and if these fixes have been applied, is the upstream global SBAT generation in your GRUB2 binary set to 4?

The entry should look similar to: grub,4,Free Software Foundation,grub,GRUB_UPSTREAM_VERSION,https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/


[your text here]


Were old shims hashes provided to Microsoft for verification and to be added to future DBX updates?

Does your new chain of trust disallow booting old GRUB2 builds affected by the CVEs?


[your text here]


If your boot chain of trust includes a Linux kernel:


[your text here]


Do you build your signed kernel with additional local patches? What do they do?


[your text here]


Do you use an ephemeral key for signing kernel modules?

If not, please describe how you ensure that one kernel build does not load modules built for another kernel.


[your text here]


If you use vendor_db functionality of providing multiple certificates and/or hashes please briefly describe your certificate setup.

If there are allow-listed hashes please provide exact binaries for which hashes are created via file sharing service, available in public with anonymous access for verification.


[your text here]


If you are re-using a previously used (CA) certificate, you will need to add the hashes of the previous GRUB2 binaries exposed to the CVEs to vendor_dbx in shim in order to prevent GRUB2 from being able to chainload those older GRUB2 binaries. If you are changing to a new (CA) certificate, this does not apply.

Please describe your strategy.


[your text here]


What OS and toolchain must we use to reproduce this build? Include where to find it, etc. We're going to try to reproduce your build as closely as possible to verify that it's really a build of the source tree you tell us it is, so these need to be fairly thorough. At the very least include the specific versions of gcc, binutils, and gnu-efi which were used, and where to find those binaries.

If the shim binaries can't be reproduced using the provided Dockerfile, please explain why that's the case and what the differences would be.


[your text here]


Which files in this repo are the logs for your build?

This should include logs for creating the buildroots, applying patches, doing the build, creating the archives, etc.


[your text here]


What changes were made in the distro's secure boot chain since your SHIM was last signed?

For example, signing new kernel's variants, UKI, systemd-boot, new certs, new CA, etc..


[your text here]


What is the SHA256 hash of your final SHIM binary?


[your text here]


How do you manage and protect the keys used in your SHIM?


[your text here]


Do you use EV certificates as embedded certificates in the SHIM?


[your text here]


Do you add a vendor-specific SBAT entry to the SBAT section in each binary that supports SBAT metadata ( GRUB2, fwupd, fwupdate, systemd-boot, systemd-stub, UKI(s), shim + all child shim binaries )?

Please provide exact SBAT entries for all shim binaries as well as all SBAT binaries that shim will directly boot.

Where your code is only slightly modified from an upstream vendor's, please also preserve their SBAT entries to simplify revocation.

If you are using a downstream implementation of GRUB2 or systemd-boot (e.g. from Fedora or Debian), please preserve the SBAT entry from those distributions and only append your own. More information on how SBAT works can be found here.


[your text here]


If shim is loading GRUB2 bootloader, which modules are built into your signed GRUB2 image?


[your text here]


If you are using systemd-boot on arm64 or riscv, is the fix for unverified Devicetree Blob loading included?


[your text here]


What is the origin and full version number of your bootloader (GRUB2 or systemd-boot or other)?


[your text here]


If your SHIM launches any other components, please provide further details on what is launched.


[your text here]


If your GRUB2 or systemd-boot launches any other binaries that are not the Linux kernel in SecureBoot mode, please provide further details on what is launched and how it enforces Secureboot lockdown.


[your text here]


How do the launched components prevent execution of unauthenticated code?


[your text here]


Does your SHIM load any loaders that support loading unsigned kernels (e.g. GRUB2)?


[your text here]


What kernel are you using? Which patches does it includes to enforce Secure Boot?


[your text here]


Add any additional information you think we may need to validate this shim.


[your text here]