trezor-firmware/docs/bootloader.md

TREZOR Core Bootloader

TREZOR initialization in split into two stages. See Memory Layout for info about in which sectors each stage is stored.

First stage (boardloader) is stored in write-protected area, which means it is non-upgradable. Only second stage (bootloader) update is allowed.

First Stage - Boardloader

First stage checks the integrity and signatures of the second stage and runs it if everything is OK.

If first stage boardloader finds a valid second stage bootloader image on the SD card (in raw format, no filesystem), it will replace the internal second stage, allowing a second stage update via SD card.

Second Stage - Bootloader

Second stage checks the integrity and signatures of the firmware and runs it if everything is OK.

If second stage bootloader detects a pressed finger on the display or there is no firmware loaded in the device, it will start in a firmware update mode, allowing a firmware update via USB.

Common notes

• Hash function used for computing data digest for signatures is BLAKE2s.
• Signature system is Ed25519 (allows combining signatures by multiple keys into one).
• All multibyte integer values are little endian.
• There is a tool called binctl which checks validity of the bootloader/firmware images including their headers.

Bootloader Format

TREZOR Core (second stage) bootloader consists of 2 parts:

1. bootloader header
2. bootloader code

Bootloader Header

Total length of bootloader header is always 512 bytes.

offset	length	name	description
0x0000	4	magic	firmware magic TRZB
0x0004	4	hdrlen	length of the bootloader header
0x0008	4	expiry	valid until timestamp (0=infinity)
0x000C	4	codelen	length of the bootloader code (without the header)
0x0010	1	vmajor	version (major)
0x0011	1	vminor	version (minor)
0x0012	1	vpatch	version (patch)
0x0013	1	vbuild	version (build)
0x0014	427	reserved	not used yet (zeroed)
0x01BF	1	sigmask	SatoshiLabs signature indexes (bitmap)
0x01C0	64	sig	SatoshiLabs aggregated signature

Firmware Format

TREZOR Core firmware consists of 3 parts:

1. vendor header
2. firmware header
3. firmware code

Vendor Header

Total length of vendor header is 84 + 32 * (number of pubkeys) + (length of vendor string rounded up to multiple of 4) + (length of vendor image) bytes rounded up to the closest multiple of 512 bytes.

offset	length	name	description
0x0000	4	magic	firmware magic TRZV
0x0004	4	hdrlen	length of the vendor header (multiple of 512)
0x0008	4	expiry	valid until timestamp (0=infinity)
0x000C	1	vmajor	version (major)
0x000D	1	vminor	version (minor)
0x000E	1	vsig_m	number of signatures needed to run the firmware from this vendor
0x000F	1	vsig_n	number of different pubkeys vendor provides for signing
0x0010	32	vpub1	vendor pubkey 1
...	...	...	...
?	32	vpubn	vendor pubkey n
?	1	vstr_len	vendor string length
?	?	vstr	vendor string
?	?	vstrpad	padding to a multiple of 4 bytes
?	?	vimg	vendor image (in TOIf format)
?	?	reserved	padding to an address that is -65 modulo 512
?	1	sigmask	SatoshiLabs signature indexes (bitmap)
?	64	sig	SatoshiLabs aggregated signature

Firmware Header

Total length of firmware header is always 512 bytes.

offset	length	name	description
0x0000	4	magic	firmware magic TRZF
0x0004	4	hdrlen	length of the firmware header
0x0008	4	expiry	valid until timestamp (0=infinity)
0x000C	4	codelen	length of the firmware code (without the header)
0x0010	1	vmajor	version (major)
0x0011	1	vminor	version (minor)
0x0012	1	vpatch	version (patch)
0x0013	1	vbuild	version (build)
0x0014	427	reserved	not used yet (zeroed)
0x01BF	1	sigmask	vendor signature indexes (bitmap)
0x01C0	64	sig	vendor aggregated signature

Various ideas

• Bootloader should be able to read vendor + firmware header and send info about FW to client in features message.
• Bootloader should not try to run firmware if there is not any.
• Storage wiping rule: Don't erase storage when old FW and new FW are signed using the same key set. Otherwise erase.
• Bootloader should send error to client when firmware update fails and allow client to try one more time. This prevents storage area erasure by accident.