The FIDO Device Onboarding (FDO) process

The FIDO Device Onboarding (FDO) is the process that:

  • Provisions and onboards a device.

  • Automatically configures credentials for this device. The FDO process is an automatic onboarding mechanism that is triggered by the installation of a new device.

  • Enables this device to securely connect and interact on the network.

With FIDO Device Onboarding (FDO), you can perform a secure device onboarding by adding new devices into your IoT architecture. This includes the specified device configuration that needs to be trusted and integrated with the rest of the running systems. The FDO process is an automatic onboarding mechanism that is triggered by the installation of a new device.

The FDO protocol performs the following tasks:

  • Solves the trust and chain of ownership along with the automation needed to securely onboard a device at scale.

  • Performs device initialization at the manufacturing stage and late device binding for its actual use. This means that actual binding of the device to a management system happens on the first boot of the device without requiring manual configuration on the device.

  • Supports automated secure devices onboarding, that is, zero touch installation and onboarding that does not need any specialized person at the edge location. After the device is onboarded, the management platform can connect to it and apply patches, updates, and rollbacks.

With FDO, you can benefit from the following:

  • FDO is a secure and simple way to enroll a device to a management platform. Instead of embedding a Kickstart configuration to the image, FDO applies the device credentials during the device first boot directly to the ISO image.

  • FDO solves the issue of late binding to a device, enabling any sensitive data to be shared over a secure FDO channel.

  • FDO cryptographically identifies the system identity and ownership before enrolling and passing the configuration and other secrets to the system. That enables non-technical users to power-on the system.

To build a Fedora IoT Simplified Provisioner image and automatically onboard it, provide an existing OSTree commit. The resulting simplified image contains a raw image that has the OSTree commit deployed. After you boot the Simplified installer ISO image, it provisions a Fedora IoT system that you can use on a hard disk or as a boot image in a virtual machine.

The Fedora IoT Simplified Provisioner image is optimized for unattended installation to a device and supports both network-based deployment and non-network-based deployments. However, for network-based deployment, it supports only UEFI HTTP boot.

The FDO protocol is based on the following servers:

Manufacturing server

  1. Generates the device credentials.

  2. Creates an Ownership voucher that is used to set the ownership of the device, later in the process.

  3. Binds the device to a specific management platform.

Owner management system

  1. Receives the Ownership voucher from the Manufacturing server and becomes the owner of the associated device.

  2. Later in the process, it creates a secure channel between the device and the owner onboarding server after the device authentication.

  3. Uses the secure channel to send the required information, such as files and scripts for the onboarding automation to the device.

Service-info API server

Based on Service-info API server’s configuration and modules available on the client, it performs the final steps of onboarding on target client devices, such as copying SSH keys and files, executing commands, creating users, encrypting disks and so on

Rendezvous server

  1. Gets the Ownership voucher from the Owner management system and makes a mapping of the device UUID to the Owner server IP. Then, the Rendezvous server matches the device UUID with a target platform and informs the device about which Owner onboarding server endpoint this device must use.

  2. During the first boot, the Rendezvous server will be the contact point for the device and it will direct the device to the owner, so that the device and the owner can establish a secure channel.

Device client

This is installed on the device. The Device client performs the following actions:

  1. Starts the queries to the multiple servers where the onboarding automation will be executed.

  2. Uses TCP/IP protocols to communicate with the servers.

The following diagram represents the FIDO device onboarding workflow: .Deploying Fedora IoT in non-network environment

FDO device onboarding

At the Device Initialization, the device contacts the Manufacturing server to get the FDO credentials, a set of certificates and keys to be installed on the operating system with the Rendezvous server endpoint (URL). It also gets the Ownership Voucher, that is maintained separately in case you need to change the owner assignment.

  1. The Device contacts the Manufacturing server

  2. The Manufacturing server generates an Ownership Voucher and the Device Credentials for the Device.

  3. The Ownership Voucher is transferred to the Owner onboarding server.

At the On-site onboarding, the Device gets the Rendezvous server endpoint (URL) from its device credentials and contacts Rendezvous server endpoint to start the onboarding process, which will redirect it to the Owner management system, that is formed by the Owner onboarding server and the Service Info API server.

  1. The Owner onboarding server transfers the Ownership Voucher to the Rendezvous server, which makes a mapping of the Ownership Voucher to the Owner.

  2. The device client reads device credentials.

  3. The device client connects to the network.

  4. After connecting to the network, the Device client contacts the Rendezvous server.

  5. The Rendezvous server sends the owner endpoint URL to the Device Client, and registers the device.

  6. The Device client connects to the Owner onboarding server shared by the Rendezvous server.

  7. The Device proves that it is the correct device by signing a statement with a device key.

  8. The Owner onboarding server proves itself correct by signing a statement with the last key of the Owner Voucher.

  9. The Owner onboarding server transfers the information of the Device to the Service Info API server.

  10. The Service info API server sends the configuration for the Device.

  11. The Device is onboarded.

Want to help? Learn how to contribute to Fedora Docs ›