On Fri, May 13, 2011, Todd Goyen wrote:

> Can someone provide a brief explanation of the fips_premain.c functionality?
> 
> I used it over a year ago and am a little hazy on the details.
> 
> 1) A checksum of the executable was performed during the first compile step 
> of fipsld
> 2) That checksum was inserted into the binary during the second compile step
> 3) When the program is run that checksum is checked when fips_mode is entered.
> 
> 
> Presuming the above is correct, I also remember that toggling a few bits in 
> the executeable (in a string for example) would cause FIPS mode to fail. 
> However a new program I have just written doesn't exhibit this behavior. Have 
> I got the functionality wrong? or is something else awry?
> 

The hmac signature doesn't cover the whole binary just the validated module
within the binary. 

Steve.
--
Dr Stephen N. Henson. OpenSSL project core developer.
Commercial tech support now available see: http://www.openssl.org
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