Security Implementation
This documentation is currently under active development. Content and procedures may change as we refine the Avocado OS platform.
Avocado OS implements a comprehensive defense-in-depth security architecture that establishes an unbroken chain of trust from hardware through kernel and all loaded extension layers. The system provides a board-agnostic command-line interface that abstracts away complex, vendor-specific mechanisms to establish a hardware root of trust, while dm-verity provides continuous integrity verification for read-only filesystems by checking each block against a pre-computed hash tree.
Security features are integrated into the build system from the start, enabling security-by-default development builds that use the same security controls as production builds. The system includes intelligent power management with ordered shutdown sequences on power failure, fault-tolerant temperature management with thermal monitoring and adaptive performance throttling, and store-and-forward architecture using a transaction-based model for system management operations to ensure consistency even with intermittent connectivity.
Defense-in-Depth Security:
- Cryptographic chain of trust from hardware to application runtime
- Board-agnostic secure boot implementation across platforms
- dm-verity continuous integrity verification for filesystem protection
- LUKS encryption with hardware-backed key storage support
Security Continuity:
- Security-by-default development builds with same controls as production
- Incremental hardening for progressive security feature activation
- Extension-level security isolation with defined boundaries
- Environmental protection with intelligent power and thermal management
Next Steps
- Update Mechanisms → - Secure OTA updates with cryptographic validation
- Architecture Overview → - Understanding the foundational security architecture
- Development Environment → - Security-enabled development workflows
- System Extensions → - Secure extension development and deployment