UEFITool/README.md

# UEFITool

UEFITool is a viewer and editor of firmware images conforming to UEFI Platform Interface (PI) Specifications.

## Very Brief Introduction to UEFI

Unified Extensible Firmware Interface or UEFI is a post-BIOS firmware specification originally written by Intel for Itanium architecture and than adapted for X86 systems.  
The first EFI-compatible x86 firmwares were used on Apple Macintosh systems in 2006 and PC motherboard vendors started putting UEFI-compatible firmwares on their boards in 2011.  
In 2015 there are numerous systems using UEFI-compatible firmware including PCs, Macs, Tablets and Smartphones on x86, x86-64 and ARM architectures.  
More information on UEFI is available on [UEFI Forum official site](http://www.uefi.org/faq) and in [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface).  
  
## Very Brief Introduction to UEFITool

UEFITool is a crossplatform opensource application written in C++/Qt, that parses UEFI-compatible firmware image into a tree structure, verifies image's integrity and provides a GUI to manipulate image's elements.  
Project development started in the middle of 2013 because of the lack of crossplatform opensource utilities for tinkering with UEFI images.  

In the beginning of 2015 the major refactoring round was started to make the program compatible with newer UEFI features including FFSv3 volumes and fixed image elements. It's in development right now with the following features still missing:
* Editor part, i.e image reconstruction routines
* Information on PE images (old code was too slow)
* Console UI
The missing parst are in development and the version with a new engine will be made as soon as image reconstruction works again.

## Derived projects

There are some other projects that are using UEFITool's engine:
* UEFIExtract, which uses ffsParser to parse supplied firmware image into a tree structure and dumps the parsed structure recursively on the FS. Jethro Berkman's [tree](https://github.com/jethrogb/uefireverse) utility can be used to work with the exctracted tree.
* [OZMTool](https://github.com/tuxuser/UEFITool/tree/OZM/OZMTool), which uses UEFITool's engine to perform various Hackintosh-related firmware modifications.

## Alternatives

Right now there are some alternatives to UEFITool that you could find useful too:
* **[PhoenixTool](http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/13194-Tool-to-Insert-Replace-SLIC-in-Phoenix-Insyde-Dell-EFI-BIOSes)** by [AndyP](http://forums.mydigitallife.info/members/39295-andyp). Windows-only freeware GUI application written in C#. Used mostly for SLIC-related modifications, but it not limited to this task. Requres Microsoft .NET 3.5 to work properly. Supports unpacking firmware images from various vendor-spicific formwats like encrypted HP update files and Dell installers.  
* **[uefi-firmware-parser](https://github.com/theopolis/uefi-firmware-parser)** by [Teddy Reed](https://github.com/theopolis). Crossplatform open source console application written in Python. Very tinker-friendly due to use of Python. Can be used in scripts to automate firmware patching.
* **[Chipsec](https://github.com/chipsec/chipsec)** by Intel. Crossplatform partially open source console application written in Python and C. Can be used to test Intel-based platforms for various security-related misconfigurations, but also has NVRAM parser and other components aimed to firmware modification.
* **MMTool** by AMI. Windows-only proprietary application available to AMI clients. Works only with Aptio4- and AptioV-based firmware images, but has some interesting features including OptionROM replacement and microcode update. Must be licensed from AMI.
* **H2OEZE** by Insyde. Windows-only proprietary application available to Insyde clients. Works only with InsydeH2O-based firmware images. Must be licensed from Insyde.
* **SCT BIOS Editor** by Phoenix. Windows-only proprietary application available to Phoenix clients. Works only with InsydeH2O-based firmware images. Must be licensed from Phoenix.

## Installation

You can either use [pre-built binaries for Windows and OSX](https://github.com/LongSoft/UEFITool/releases/latest) or build a binary yourself. 
To build a binary you need a C++ compiler and an instance of Qt4/Qt5 library.  
Install both of them, get the sources, generate makefiles using qmake (`qmake UEFITool.pro`) and use your system's make command on that generated files (i.e. `nmake release`, `make release` and so on).

## Known issues

* Some vendor-specific firmware update files can be opened incorrectly or can't be opened at all. This includes encrypted HP update files, Dell HDR and EXE files, some InsydeFlash FD files and so on. Enabling support for such files will require massive amount of reverse-engeneering which is almost pointless because the updated image can be obtained from BIOS chip where it's already decrypted and unpacked.
* Intel Firmware Interface Table (FIT) editing is not supported right now, but it will be added soon. FIT contains pointers to various image components that must be loaded before executing the first CPU instruction from the BIOS chip. Those components include CPU microcode updates, binaries and settings used by BIOS Guard and Boot Guard technologies and some other stuff. Moe information on FIT can be obtained [here](http://downloadmirror.intel.com/18931/eng/Intel%20TXT%20LAB%20Handout.pdf).