this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2025
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Microsoft secure boot is 100% made to be a pain in the ass for Linux users. It doesn't add any security, but is instead a huge added unnecessary risk factor for data loss for users.
It technically does add security in that it prevents a load of attack vectors that would dodge most anti malware tools (i.e. the ones before the anti malware tool can start)
But you're right in that the execution of the idea is unnecessarily painful for Linux
OK so when did you hear of an actual successful attack that could have been avoided if the user had used secure boot?
Well boot sector viruses used to be all the rage in the 90s, they're entirely impossible under secure boot
Malware rootkits were a pretty big problem about a decade ago, I understand the techniques those mostly used are more or less impossible under secure boot now too
Then we could go into all the government and adjacent industry use cases where state-sponsored targeted attacks are a real concern. Measures like filling USB ports with super glue and desoldering microphones on company laptops is not unheard of in those circles, so blocking unknown bootloaders from executing is an absolute no brainer.
Saying it provides no security is just not true. Your front door isn't only secure if someone has failed to break in
Secure Boot keys are considered compromised.
https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/07/secure-boot-is-completely-compromised-on-200-models-from-5-big-device-makers/
If you are recommending secure boot as a security measure, you should stop doing so.
I'm not recommending it, I'm describing why saying it adds no security is silly.
The keys being compromised on some motherboards doesn't mean the whole concept is suddenly inert for every single user
If everyone has a copy of my passwords and authenticator keys, that wouldn't suddenly make 2 factor auth a compromised idea.
Hell, even if you are one of those people running a machine with the compromised keys, it's still going to block malware that was written before the keys were leaked unless malware authors have also figured out time travel.
Not sure how this relates. If you're saying it was a good idea at the outset, then sure.... If the keys hadn't almost all been leaked by AMI and Phoenix. MS was supposed to have created a Microsoft Certified hardware vendor program for this, which fell apart pretty quickly.
Secure Boot is a joke, both practically (there are many, many tools in use to bypass it) and in my professional circles, it is considered obsolete like WEP. My audit controls for Secure Boot demand that an endpoint management solution like InTune is deployed.
You don't have to take my word for it, obviously. I'm not trying to tell you how to live your life.
That's just FUD. "Secure Boot keys are considered compromised."...
some are... some
Doesn't mean it's better to turn off all security measures and live without them.
That's like saying a lightbulb stopped working, so now you live without electricity. :)
The idea itself is fine (not getting into how not cool it is that a vendor holds the key to your bitlocker-encrypted disk once secure boot is turned on).
But so is WEP for WiFi, but no one uses that anymore because it's considered compromised.
65% of all TPM keys is "some", I suppose. But that's not the issue. Keys leak, it happens. The more troubling part is that Microsoft will cheerfully use the leaked key on your affected TPM and you'll get the "safe" check mark in your next audit.
And this was warned about in 2011 when it started rolling out.
As for FUD, I don't have a "fear" angle here. I can't tell you how to live your life, use secure boot if you feel safe doing so.
WEP is insecure - that's why it's not used anymore.
Quite different to a secure protocol that has had some manufacturers leak keys due to poor security practices.
I don't know which distro you're using, but in Fedora and Debian it's pretty easy to install the signed version of grub and the signed shime and get full secure boot in Linux. No setup needed.
Only as long as Microsoft allow it, and only because a lot of work was put into that shit. The first couple of years it was very flaky.
It's easy enough to add your own secure boot keys, you can even remove the Microsoft keys so that only your OS will boot.
OK that's new to me, I have to admit I haven't been looking at it for years, I do not feel comfortable following Microsoft specifications, as Microsoft has a long h9istory of fucking things up for others on purpose, and their safety record is probably among the worst in the industry.