[name] sign-efi-sig-list - signing tool for secure variables as EFI Signature Lists [examples] To sign a simple append update to db which has been prepared as an EFI Signature List in DB.esl and output the result with the authentication header in DB.auth sign-efi-sig-list -a -c KEK.crt -k KEK.key db DB.esl DB.auth To do a detached signature in the same way sign-efi-sig-list -a -t 'Jul 21 09:39:37 BST 2012' -o db DB.esl DB.forsig Now sign the DB.forsig file in the standard openssl way. Note that the standards require sha256 as the signature algorithm openssl smime -sign -binary -in DB.forsig -out DB.signed -signer KEK.crt -inkey KEK.key -outform DER -md sha256 Which produces a detached PKCS7 signature in DB.signed. Now feed this back into the program remembering to keep the same timestamp (and the -a flag): sign-efi-sig-list -a -i DB.signed -t 'Jul 21 09:39:37 BST 2012' db DB.auth To delete a key, simply sign an empty EFI signature list file, so to produce an variable update that will delete the PK: > null.esl And then sign it in the standard way (must not be an append write update): sign-efi-sig-list -c PK.crt -k PK.key PK null.esl PK.auth Once you have the .auth file conveyed to the UEFI platform, you can use the UpdateVars.efi program to apply it UpdateVars [-a] db DB.auth Where the -a flag must be present if the DB.auth file was created as an append write update and absent if its replacing the variable. [see also] cert-to-efi-sig-list(1) for details on how to produce EFI signature lists.