I’ve been meaning to look more closely into version 2.5 changes in UEFI. So far, I’ve only looked at UEFI HTTP Boot, at a little at the NVMe passthru protocol.

Looking at the UEFI 2.5 spec from uefi.org, the initial pages of the document include it’s revision history.  It appears the UEFI 2.5 changes were done in two batches, February 2015 and April 2015. I’m listing the revisions below, with the “2.5” prefix and the “<Month> 2015” suffix removed, for clarity.

The number is the Mantis issue-tracking number, something only useful for UEFI Forum members. If you are a UEFI Forum member, you can presumably access their Mantis system and get more information about the changes. The public only has the title, and a useless Mantis number.  Perhaps the submitter for UEFI 2.5 mantis entry 1147 is the NSA or the Hacking Team? 🙂 We’ve no idea, the title for that change is “REDACT”. 😦

I wish the UEFI Forum would spend a few minutes in their release phase to give a paragraph or two of information about these changes. At minimum, they should mention where in the spec(s) this change impacts, if the new software feature will be in open source TianoCore implementation or only in commercial products. If the code is in TianoCore, it would be nice to mention the SVN build number, like the TiaonCore Security Advisories do — so you can compare the before/after in the code more easily. SVN build numbers would be more a lot useful to the public than the “<Month> <YEAR>” string added to the title of each revision entry.

Here are the UEFI 2.5 updates:

1071 New EFI_HASH2_PROTOCOL
1090 ESRT: EFI System Resource Table and component firmware updates
1091 Clarification of handle to host FMP
1103 Longer term New CPER Memory Section
1109 Smart Card Reader
1121 IPV6 support from UNDI
1147–REDACT
1163 Inline Cryptographic Interface Protocol proposal
1166 hash 2 protocol errata
1158 errata – boot manager clarification
1159 Proposal for System Prep Applications
1167 Persistent Memory Type support
1174 errata – Error in EFI_IFR_PASSWORD logic flowchart
1183 New Protocol with 2 Function for PKCS7 Signature Verification Services
1186 AArch64 binding clarifications and errata
1191 Add new SMBIOS3_TABLE_GUID in EFI_CONFIGURATION_TABLE
1199 Add NVM Express Pass Thru Protocol
1201 Exposing Memory Redundancy to OSPM
1204 new UEFI USB Function I/O Protocol addition to the UEFI spec
1212 UEFI.Next feature – HTTP API
1213 UEFI.Next feature – HTTP helper API
1214 UEFI.Next feature – HTTP Boot
1215 UEFI.Next feature – DNS version 4
1216 UEFI.next feature – DNS version 6
1217 UEFI.Next feature – WIFI support
1218 UEFI.Next feature – EAP2 Protocol
1219 UEFI.Next Feature – UEFI TLS API
1220 UEFI.Next feature – Bluetooth
1221 UEFI.Next feature – REST Protocol
1222 UEFI.Next feature – BMC/Service Processor Device Path
1223 UEFI.Next networking features – chapter 2.6 requirements
1224 UEFI.Next – Adding support for No executable data areas
1227 UEFI.Next feature – Platform recovery
1234 UEFI.Next feature – Smart card edge protocol
1244 sections of the spec mis-arranged
1251 EFI_REGULAR_EXPRESSION_PROTOCOL and EFI_IFR_MATCH2 HII op-code
1254 SD Device Path
1255 UFS Device Path Node Length
1257 Correct the typedef definitions for EFI_BOOT_SERVICES/EFI_RUNTIME_SERVICES–Reiterate
1263 Customized Deployment of Secure Boot
1266 UEFI.Next Feature – IP_CONFIG2 Protocol
1268 RAM Disk UEFI Device Path Node
1269 Configuration Routing Protocol and Configuration String Updates
1287 Errata: EFI Driver Supported EFI Version not matching the spec revision
1288 The Macro definition conflict in EFI_SIMPLE_TEXT_OUTPUT_PROTOCOL.SetAttribute() in UEFI 2.4 B
1303 Update the UEFI version to reflect new revision
1304 Add IMAGE_UPDATABLE_VALID_WITH_VENDOR_CODE to FMP Check image
1308 Fix typo’s found in the final/published UEFI 2.4 Errata B spec
1309 Disallow EFI_VARIABLE_AUTHENTICATION from Secure Boot Policy Variables
1339 Errata in section 7.2.3.2 Hardware Error Record Variables
1341 DNS4 – friendly amendment to be reviewed by USWG
1342 DNS6 – friendly amendment for review by USWG
1345 EFI_USB2_HC_PROTOCOL Errata
1346 Mantis 1288 Errata
1347 Boot Manager Policy Errata
1348 ERRATA – Section 10.12 EFI_ADAPTER_INFORMATION_PROTOCOL Custom Types
1350 Keyword Strings Errata
1352 Errata for 1263 and 1227
1353 SATA Device Path Node Errata
1358 v2.5 amendment and v2.4 errata (missed implementation of Mantis 1089)
1360 Vendor Range for UEFI memory Types
1362 HTTP boot typos/bugs
1364 Extend supplicant data type for EAP

I’ll start to dig into a subset of this list in upcoming blog entries, starting with ones that have TianoCore implementation-related checkins.