Lecture

Trusted Computing: Confidentiality, Integrity, and Side-Channel Attacks

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Description

This lecture covers the fundamentals of trusted computing, focusing on the need for confidentiality and integrity in hardware and software. It explains trusted hardware properties, such as attestation, sealing, and isolation, and discusses technologies like Trusted Platform Module (TPM) and Trusted Execution Environments (TEE). The lecture also delves into real-world examples, such as private contact discovery in Signal, and explores side-channel attacks like Meltdown and Spectre, emphasizing the importance of mitigations and the challenges of ensuring security in trusted computing environments.

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Related concepts (32)

Trusted Computing

Trusted Computing (TC) is a technology developed and promoted by the Trusted Computing Group. The term is taken from the field of trusted systems and has a specialized meaning that is distinct from the field of confidential computing. With Trusted Computing, the computer will consistently behave in expected ways, and those behaviors will be enforced by computer hardware and software. Enforcing this behavior is achieved by loading the hardware with a unique encryption key that is inaccessible to the rest of the system and the owner.

Cryptography

Cryptography, or cryptology (from κρυπτός "hidden, secret"; and γράφειν graphein, "to write", or -λογία -logia, "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adversarial behavior. More generally, cryptography is about constructing and analyzing protocols that prevent third parties or the public from reading private messages. Modern cryptography exists at the intersection of the disciplines of mathematics, computer science, information security, electrical engineering, digital signal processing, physics, and others.

Trusted Platform Module

Trusted Platform Module (TPM, also known as ISO/IEC 11889) is an international standard for a secure cryptoprocessor, a dedicated microcontroller designed to secure hardware through integrated cryptographic keys. The term can also refer to a chip conforming to the standard. One of Windows 11's system requirements is TPM 2.0. Microsoft has stated that this is to help increase security against firmware attacks. Trusted Platform Module (TPM) was conceived by a computer industry consortium called Trusted Computing Group (TCG).

Trusted Execution Technology

Intel Trusted Execution Technology (Intel TXT, formerly known as LaGrande Technology) is a computer hardware technology of which the primary goals are: Attestation of the authenticity of a platform and its operating system. Assuring that an authentic operating system starts in a trusted environment, which can then be considered trusted. Provision of a trusted operating system with additional security capabilities not available to an unproven one.

Next-Generation Secure Computing Base

The Next-Generation Secure Computing Base (NGSCB; codenamed Palladium and also known as Trusted Windows') is a software architecture designed by Microsoft which aimed to provide users of the Windows operating system with better privacy, security, and system integrity. NGSCB was the result of years of research and development within Microsoft to create a secure computing solution that equaled the security of closed platforms such as set-top boxes while simultaneously preserving the backward compatibility, flexibility, and openness of the Windows operating system.

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