Trusted Firmware-A Documentation

Trusted Firmware-A (TF-A) provides a reference implementation of secure world software for Armv7-A and Armv8-A, including a Secure Monitor executing at Exception Level 3 (EL3). It implements various Arm interface standards, such as:

Where possible, the code is designed for reuse or porting to other Armv7-A and Armv8-A model and hardware platforms.

This release provides a suitable starting point for productization of secure world boot and runtime firmware, in either the AArch32 or AArch64 execution states.

Users are encouraged to do their own security validation, including penetration testing, on any secure world code derived from TF-A.

In collaboration with interested parties, we will continue to enhance TF-A with reference implementations of Arm standards to benefit developers working with Armv7-A and Armv8-A TrustZone technology.

Getting Started

The TF-A documentation contains guidance for obtaining and building the software for existing, supported platforms, as well as supporting information for porting the software to a new platform.

The About chapter gives a high-level overview of TF-A features as well as some information on the project and how it is organized.

Refer to the documents in the Getting Started chapter for information about the prerequisites and requirements for building TF-A.

The Processes & Policies chapter explains the project’s release schedule and process, how security disclosures are handled, and the guidelines for contributing to the project (including the coding style).

The Components chapter holds documents that explain specific components that make up the TF-A software, the Exception Handling Framework, for example.

In the System Design chapter you will find documents that explain the design of portions of the software that involve more than one component, such as the Trusted Board Boot process.

Platform Ports provides a list of the supported hardware and software-model platforms that are supported upstream in TF-A. Most of these platforms also have additional documentation that has been provided by the maintainers of the platform.

The results of any performance evaluations are added to the Performance & Testing chapter.

Security Advisories holds a list of documents relating to CVE entries that have previously been raised against the software.


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