Add AArch64 boot handoff support - #47
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Build the DCS applications for AArch64, publish authenticated boot parameters through owned runtime memory, and clear them without retaining the pre-boot password. Add fail-closed rescue-decryption completion, ARM-safe platform fallbacks, and modern EDK2 compatibility required by the AA64 build.
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July 29, 2026 09:54
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Summary
This adds the DCS half of Windows system encryption support for ARM64. It introduces an AArch64 build, an explicit DCS-to-Windows boot-argument handoff, and fail-closed rescue-decryption finalization. The companion Windows driver and application changes are in VeraCrypt#1838.
Development and validation were performed on Windows 11 ARM64 in a Parallels VM.
AArch64 support
LegacySpeakera no-op on unsupported AArch64 firmware instead of assuming PC speaker hardware./W4 /WX.Boot handoff protocol
DCS allocates and owns a 4 KiB
EfiRuntimeServicesDatapage for the VeraCrypt boot arguments. A small, versioned descriptor is exposed through a volatile UEFI runtime variable and contains:The descriptor is not the password payload itself. The Windows driver validates the descriptor and ownership metadata, copies only the bounded boot-argument structure, zeroes the owned runtime page, and clears the volatile variable. No preboot password is intentionally persisted in NVRAM.
On AArch64, direct boot of the original Windows loader is disabled for the encrypted-system path because bypassing the DCS chain would omit the required handoff.
Rescue decryption safety
The rescue-decryption path now treats transform failures as sticky and only marks decryption complete after it has:
This prevents a partial or stale finalization from being reported as successful.
Validation
/W4 /WX/W4 /WXThe diagnostic instrumentation used for runtime verification is not included in this PR.
Release integration
Runtime validation used locally built components. Official EFI signing remains part of the VeraCrypt release process; no test certificate, private signing material or signing bypass is included in this PR.