A Practical Guide to Trusted Computing

Book excerpt: Use Trusted Computing to Make PCs Safer, More Secure, and More Reliable Every year, computer security threats become more severe. Software alone can no longer adequately defend against them: what’s needed is secure hardware. The Trusted Platform Module (TPM) makes that possible by providing a complete, open industry standard for implementing trusted computing hardware subsystems in PCs. Already available from virtually every leading PC manufacturer, TPM gives software professionals powerful new ways to protect their customers. Now, there’s a start-to-finish guide for every software professional and security specialist who wants to utilize this breakthrough security technology. Authored by innovators who helped create TPM and implement its leading-edge products, this practical book covers all facets of TPM technology: what it can achieve, how it works, and how to write applications for it. The authors offer deep, real-world insights into both TPM and the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) Software Stack. Then, to demonstrate how TPM can solve many of today’s most challenging security problems, they present four start-to-finish case studies, each with extensive C-based code examples. Coverage includes What services and capabilities are provided by TPMs TPM device drivers: solutions for code running in BIOS, TSS stacks for new operating systems, and memory-constrained environments Using TPM to enhance the security of a PC’s boot sequence Key management, in depth: key creation, storage, loading, migration, use, symmetric keys, and much more Linking PKCS#11 and TSS stacks to support applications with middleware services What you need to know about TPM and privacy--including how to avoid privacy problems Moving from TSS 1.1 to the new TSS 1.2 standard TPM and TSS command references and a complete function library