AHAB_SIGNED_MESSAGE(1)

📦
version 4.0.1 · 2 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💖 ahab_signed_message — the i.MX CST glow-up edition 💖

okay bestie, so this is AHAB_SIGNED_MESSAGE(1) from the i.MX CST Documentation, and it's genuinely one of my faves. sit down, grab a strawberry, we're making signed messages for AHAB devices 🔥

✨ NAME ✨

ahab_signed_message — generate signed messages for unlocking services of AHAB devices 🫶

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

ahab_signed_message -t file -m file -o file [-v] [-V] [-h]

🎀 NOTE 🎀

okay so real talk, this manpage is just the short description of NXP ahab_signed_message. for the full tea you gotta go to the Code Signing Tool User Guide UG10106, section 5.5 and the NXP Application Note AN13770. ngl those two are the main character documents here 📚

you can get the user guide and the application note from www.nxp.com — and the reason they're not chilling in Debian with us is copyright reasons, so don't come for us, it's not our call 😭

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

the ahab_signed_message tool generates signed messages for unlocking services of AHAB devices running on an OEM-closed life cycle. like, that's the whole job, and it eats. 🔥

once you've generated them, those signed messages can be sent to a NXP SECO crypto processor or an NXP EdgeLock Enclave (ELE) module — but only after you sign them with the cst tool and a valid key. no key, no entry, periodt. 🔑

and if you're like "bestie where do I even find templates and payloads??" — they're right here:

/usr/share/doc/imx-code-signing-tool/examples/signed_message

that's the spot for templates and payloads for messages supported by SECO and ELE. go look, it's giving resource library 🦋

✨ OPTIONS ✨

  • -t file — point at the message template file you wanna use 🌸
  • -m file — point at the message payload file
  • -o file — point at the output file, this is where the magic lands 💫
  • -v — turn on verbose output, for when you need the play-by-play commentary
  • -V — print version information, always good to know who you're dealing with 👑
  • -h — display the help message and exit, the classic escape hatch 🙈

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

say you wanna generate a message for SECO to enable secure debugging. here's the vibe:

  1. retrieve the unique ID and the monotonic counter for the target processor 🔍
  2. enter those values into a copy of ahab-signed-msg-header-template.json — and yes, that's a copy of:

/usr/share/doc/imx-code-signing-tool/examples/signed_message/ahab-signed-msg-header-template.json

  1. then create the binary message with:
ahab_signed_message \
    -t ahab-signed-msg-header-template.json \
    -m /usr/share/doc/imx-code-signing-tool/examples/signed_message/ahab-EnableDebug-example-msg.json \
    -o msg.bin

and boom, you got msg.bin ✨

msg.bin can then be signed using cst and a suitable CSF file, and it can be sent to SECO through the SCFW API or by placing it in a boot container. the full process is discussed in NXP application note AN13770, section 11 — go read it, i promise it's worth it 💜

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

  • cst(1) — the other half of this duo, you literally cannot do this without them 🫶
ngl this whole tool is lowkey iconic once it clicks. sign your messages, unlock your services, live your truth. 💅

okay that's the whole page bestie!! this one's from i.MX CST Documentation, version/date 2026-09-02 — no cap, that's the source and the date, keep them in your heart 🎀💖 talk laterrr ✨

📦 where this page comes from