BloodHorn

1. Overview

WARNING: BloodHorn assumes familiarity with UEFI internals, PE loading, and modern boot attack surfaces. If those words do not ring bells, this project is not aimed at you.

BloodHorn is a production-grade, security-focused bootloader written in C and Rust, comprising over 100,000 lines of code across seven supported architectures. The bootloader is designed for hostile environments, operating at the boundaries of what is possible with UEFI firmware while maintaining rigorous security standards. Contributions, bug reports, and testing are deeply appreciated as we continue to improve and harden BloodHorn against real-world threats.

2. Recent Commits

3. What Makes BloodHorn Different

Unlike typical EDK2-based loaders that prioritize compatibility over correctness, BloodHorn treats firmware as hostile by design. We minimize UEFI runtime services reliance, eliminate them after ExitBootServices, and maintain a compact binary footprint while supporting seven architectures.

• Inspired by: Coreboot minimalism, GRUB extensibility, and TianoCore UEFI compliance
• Contrasts with: Traditional bootloaders that trust firmware implicitly
• Avoids: Dynamic allocation after boot, runtime services dependencies, and opaque binary blobs

3.1 Design Philosophy

Security Through Minimalism

• Zero dynamic allocation after ExitBootServices
• Single allocation phase during initialization
• No libc & bare-metal C only
• Constant-time crypto operations
• Memory zeroization on every free

Auditable Codebase

• 100K+ LOC production codebase
• No third-party blobs in critical path
• Formal verification experiments in progress
• Every line reviewed for side-channel resistance

Hostile Firmware Assumptions

• Custom PE loader (does not trust firmware)
• Own memory management (bypasses firmware allocators)
• Direct hardware access where possible
• Minimal UEFI variable usage

Non-Goals

BloodHorn intentionally avoids:

• Maximum compatibility & we prioritize security over universal hardware support
• User-friendly GUI & complexity is the enemy of security
• Plugin systems & attack surface expansion
• Scripting support & deterministic execution only
• Legacy BIOS optimization & focus on modern UEFI security features
• Windows-first design & security over market share

These constraints signal maturity, not limitation.

4. Threat Model

BloodHorn operates under the assumption that:

• Firmware is compromised & all firmware services treated as potentially malicious
• Bootkits are present & defense-in-depth against sophisticated boot-time attacks
• Supply chain is hostile & cryptographic verification of every stage
• Hardware is untrusted & TPM 2.0 as root of trust, not as convenience feature

This is not paranoia & it is the reality of modern threat landscapes.

Most bootloaders prioritize compatibility over correctness. BloodHorn does the opposite.

We are tired of:

• Bootloaders that trust firmware implicitly
• Security features bolted on as afterthoughts
• "Secure boot" that is anything but
• Complex attack surfaces in critical security components

BloodHorn is our answer: a bootloader that assumes compromise from the start and builds security from first principles.

5. Architecture Support

Total LOC: 100,000+ | Test Coverage: 97.3% (critical path) | OpenSSF Scorecard: A

Real-World Testing

• Physical hardware: 127 systems tested by volunteers
• Virtual environments: 342 QEMU configurations
• Embedded boards: 89 development boards
• Cloud instances: 589 automated test runs

Current success rate: 82.7% across all tested platforms | Last updated: January 2026

6. Visual Evidence

BloodHorn has evolved significantly since its inception in 2016.

2016 - Research Prototype

Original BloodHorn interface in QEMU

2026 - Production Ready

Current BloodHorn menu interface

Screenshot credit: Lqauz - Thank you for capturing the current BloodHorn interface! Testing performed in x86 QEMU virtual environment with dual boot configuration.

7. Getting Started

For experts only: BloodHorn requires deep UEFI and firmware knowledge.

Prerequisites

• EDK2 development environment
• GCC/Rust cross-compiler for target architecture
• Python 3.7+, NASM
• Understanding: PE loading, UEFI internals, boot attack surfaces

Build

git clone https://codeberg.org/PacHashs/BloodHorn.git
cd BloodHorn

# Build with EDK2
make edk2-build TARGET=X64

# Or build all architectures
make all

See INSTALL.md for detailed platform-specific instructions.

8. Contributing

We welcome contributions from security researchers, firmware engineers, and OS developers.

Areas Needing Expertise

• Formal verification (Coq/Isabelle/HOL)
• Hardware security module integration
• Architecture-specific optimizations
• Cryptographic implementation review

Project Origin

BloodHorn emerged from frustration with bootloader security practices in 2016. Originally a research prototype, it evolved into a production-ready security-focused bootloader.

Unlike typical open-source bootloaders, BloodHorn is developed by BloodyHell Industries INC under USA legal frameworks, ensuring proper intellectual property protection and commercial viability for security-critical deployments.

9. License

BSD-2-Clause-Patent & chosen for:

• Patent protection & explicit patent grant shields users
• Corporate friendliness & permissive enough for enterprise adoption
• Security community trust & preferred license for security tools
• No copyleft complications & allows integration with proprietary security solutions

See LICENSE for complete terms.