feat(ipe): add signed policy loading and Azure mode selection

[aadhar-agarwal]

Summary

Delivers the signed IPE policy as a per-UKI credential companion while preserving a bootable build-time candidate and moving final signing to ACL Pipelines definition 5425.

The credential is stored at EFI/Linux/<uki>.efi.extra.d/acl-ipe-policy.p7b.cred. systemd-stub exposes it in the initramfs at /.extra/credentials/acl-ipe-policy.p7b.cred, and the signed UKI command line binds it with acl.ipe.policy_sha256=<sha256-of-attached-CMS>.

Change Log

• Generate a build-local attached CMS candidate for both ephemeral and external modes.
• Stage the immutable raw policy and candidate credential under ${BUILD_DIR}/acl-ipe-policy/.
• Bind the exact credential hash into the UKI before its build-time signature and install the credential beside that UKI.
• On Azure, attempt to validate and load the credential during initrd; failures leave IPE inactive without blocking boot.
• Keep runtime activation off by default and accept only off or permissive from Azure IMDS.
• Forward the selected IPE asset mode through the SDK/container interfaces.
• Reuse one ephemeral Secure Boot certificate across test and production VHD conversions.
• Add build, loader, artifact-cleanup, and mode contracts plus updated architecture documentation.

Type of Change

• Image build change (base image, sysexts, OEM images)
• Package/SPEC update
• CI/automation change
• SDK/toolchain update
• Configuration change
• Documentation update
• Bug fix

Does this affect the image build?

• Yes
• No

Associated Issues

• Final signing and publishing: ACL Pipelines PR 28754, commit 8c9d4f29.
• Trusted Launch certificate plumbing: Mantle PR 34, merged.

Mode behavior

• disabled: no token, credential, or raw policy.
• ephemeral: the build-time candidate is final for development and tests.
• external: the build-time candidate keeps the VHD bootable; definition 5425 validates and replaces it.

Normal production defaults remain disabled. Production activation is a follow-up.

Test Methodology

Step	Validation	Pipeline / evidence	Status / refs
1	Independent PR-head checks	• github-acl-pr-validation - PR 52 1193015 • prcheck 1193008 • acl-pipelines-prcheck 1193009	Current-head checks in progress at PR 52 701fa3e63; PR 28754 8c9d4f29.
2	AMD64 and ARM64 production defaults disabled	• [AMD64-7-OneBranch]-Prod-BuildACL 1193016 • [ARM64-7-OneBranch]-Prod-BuildACL 1193017	Current-head PROD runs in progress with ipeAssetMode: disabled. ARM64 QEMU Kola is a known failing baseline and is not an IPE gate.
3-4	Standard Secure Boot and merged Mantle trust	• aclmain-grub 1191526 • Mantle PR 34	Passed without an additional UEFI db certificate; Mantle is merged.
5-6	Combined PR 52 + PR 28754 exact-ref integration	• github-acl-pr-validation 1191549	Passed at 728686795 / dc202453, including both architectures after the ARM64 retry.
7	IPE image changes land in release/3.0	• This PR	Pending - merge PR 28754, merge this PR, then backport.
8a	External candidate build, bundle, and Azure smoke	• [AMD64]-Prod-BuildACL-Nightly 1193012 • [ARM64]-Prod-BuildACL-Nightly 1193013	Current-head, non-hydrated external runs in progress at 701fa3e63 / 8c9d4f29.
8b-c	Publisher signing and ACG dry-run, both architectures	• ACL-Publish-MCR-And-ACG 1191577	Passed; the partial result is only a non-blocking 1ES warning.

Current-head IPE validation is in progress for PR 28754 8c9d4f29. ARM64 QEMU Kola remains a known failing baseline and is not an IPE gate.

Landing Timeline

• 1 - Integrate ephemeral IPE across PR 52 and PR 28754.
• 2 - Keep AMD64 and ARM64 production defaults disabled.
• 3 - Validate Mantle Trusted Launch and VHD fallback.
• 4 - Merge Mantle PR 34.
• 5 - Pass AMD64 and ARM64 Azure Kola.
• 6 - Merge PR 28754.
• 7 - Merge PR 52, then backport to release/3.0.
• 8 - Validate external signing end to end.
• 9 - Activate production in a follow-up PR.

Merge Checklist

• Image build contracts pass for this change
• Any updated packages/SPECs build successfully
• Fresh relevant kola tests pass
• All package sources are available
• Source files have up-to-date hashes/manifests
• Documentation has been updated
• Ready to merge

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Adds opt-in IPE support to Azure Secure Boot UKI images, including signed policies, dm-verity signatures, and IMDS-based permissive mode.

Changes:

• Builds and loads signed IPE policies with signed /usr root hashes.
• Adds Azure Trusted Launch certificate forwarding and runtime validation.
• Adds supporting tests, CI parameters, documentation, and package fixes.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 35 out of 35 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
sdk_lib/sdk_entry.sh	Forwards validated IPE settings.
sdk_lib/sdk_container_common.sh	Adds version-file fallback.
run_sdk_container	Streams external policies into containers.
run_azure_tests.sh	Forwards Trusted Launch settings.
image_to_vm.sh	Reuses IPE signing certificates.
ci-automation/vendor-testing/azure.sh	Configures Trusted Launch and certificates.
build_library/rpm/uki_install.sh	Signs and installs verity companions.
build_library/rpm/sign_uki_ephemeral.sh	Supports shared signing certificates.
build_library/rpm/rpm_install.sh	Installs signed policies and multi-RPM mappings.
build_library/rpm/package_catalog.yaml	Adds explicit libgomp dependencies.
build_library/rpm/ipe_verity.sh	Serializes validated root hashes.
build_library/rpm/ensure_ephemeral_cert.sh	Generates shared ephemeral certificates.
build_library/rpm/dracut_install.sh	Installs the IPE loader module.
build_library/rpm/additional_files/ipe/acl-ipe-boot-policy.pol	Defines the IPE execution policy.
build_library/rpm/additional_files/dracut-acl-selinux-toggle/module-setup.sh	Installs the shared profile helper.
build_library/rpm/additional_files/dracut-acl-selinux-toggle/acl-selinux-toggle.sh	Uses shared IMDS parsing.
build_library/rpm/additional_files/dracut-acl-ipe-load/module-setup.sh	Defines the IPE dracut module.
build_library/rpm/additional_files/dracut-acl-ipe-load/acl-ipe-load.sh	Selects and activates IPE mode.
build_library/rpm/additional_files/dracut-acl-ipe-load/acl-ipe-load.service	Orders early policy loading.
build_library/rpm/additional_files/acl-node-security-profile.sh	Fetches and caches IMDS profiles.
build_library/build_image_util.sh	Integrates policy installation.
acl/validate/validate_common.sh	Forwards host-test timeouts.
acl/tests/test-run-sdk-container-ipe-policy.sh	Tests policy streaming and reuse.
acl/tests/test-rpm-provider-selection.sh	Tests multi-package mappings.
acl/tests/test-ipe-policy-input.sh	Tests policy preparation and validation.
acl/tests/test-ipe-loader-runtime.sh	Tests runtime mode selection.
acl/tests/test-azure-security-profile-test-common.sh	Tests timeout contracts.
acl/tests/run-selinux-toggle-test.sh	Reuses shared Azure helpers.
acl/tests/run-ipe-permissive-test.sh	Validates permissive IPE behavior.
acl/tests/run-ipe-mode-toggle-test.sh	Tests reboot-based IPE selection.
acl/tests/azure-security-profile-test-common.sh	Shares Azure tag/reboot logic.
acl/docs/BUILD_RPM_IMAGE_README.md	Documents policy build inputs.
acl/docs/architecture.md	Documents IPE and verity architecture.
acl/build_rpm_image.sh	Adds IPE configuration and validation.
.pipelines/github-pr-validation.yml	Adds validation parameters.

Suppressed comments (1)

acl/docs/BUILD_RPM_IMAGE_README.md:173

• The external-policy example also omits ACL_IPE_CAPABLE=true, so the supplied artifact is validated but never installed because rpm_install_ipe_policy returns immediately for the default disabled capability. Update this command to opt into IPE explicitly.

./acl/build_rpm_image.sh --rebuild \
  --ipe-policy-mode=external \
  --ipe-policy-path=/secure/input/acl.pol.p7b

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