Secure Boot

[ahmad_sh96]

Hi everyone, just asking what are the effects of disabling Secure Boot on my laptop? i'm using a Toshiba Satellite C850 with Windows 8.1 .

[Cacao]

 

Microsoft Secure Boot is a component of Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system that relies on the UEFI specification’s secure boot functionality to help prevent malicious software applications and "unauthorized" operating systems from loading during the system start-up process.

While there is some concern that Microsoft Secure Boot will make it difficult to install Linux or other operating systems on a Windows 8 computer, the secure boot functionality in Windows 8 is primarily designed to protect users fromrootkits and other low-level malware attacks by blocking unauthorized (non-signed) executables and drivers from being loaded during the boot process.

Personal computers bearing the Windows 8-certified logo will be required to ship with Microsoft Secure Boot enabled.

Got this from webopedia, it explains it better than I ever could. Hope it helps!

[Altecice]

Dont... simple as that. Dont fix what is not broken.

[LAwLz]

What secure boot does is that it checks all the components in the boot chain for valid certificates. If malware makes changes to let's say your bootloader, the signature generated during boot will not match the trusted signatures and your computer will not boot. This way, you can be sure that nothing during the booting process has been tampered with by for example a root kit. Disable secure boot if you don't want these controls (for example if you want to use a modified bootloader, or an OS that is not certified, or something along those lines).

 

If you don't understand that answer then I suggest you leave it alone, because you might break something if you fiddle with it.

[GoodBytes]

Secure Boot is to avoid attacks like this on your system:

http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/10/meet-badbios-the-mysterious-mac-and-pc-malware-that-jumps-airgaps/

The above is 100% undetectable.

[ahmad_sh96]

I had to disable it to access my Windows after installing Ubuntu on my notebook, i'll find a way to log in to windows without disabling secure boot. thank you guys for the info.

[GoodBytes]

I think it's because you are using your Ubuntu boot manager to select witch OS you want, and not Windows.

You need to use the Windows one.

If I am not mistaken Ubuntu by itself supports Secure Boot... but I am just going from memory, I could be wrong on that.

[ahmad_sh96]

Ubuntu Boot manager doesn't support Windows 8.1 yet.