Trusted Platform Modules: Why, when and how to use them (Computing and Networks) - Hardcover

Segall, Ariel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1849198934 ISBN 13: 9781849198936

Publisher: The Institution of Engineering and Technology, 2016

Synopsis

Trusted Platform Modules (TPMs) are small, inexpensive chips which provide a limited set of security functions. They are most commonly found as a motherboard component on laptops and desktops aimed at the corporate or government markets, but can also be found on many consumer-grade machines and servers, or purchased as independent components. Their role is to serve as a Root of Trust - a highly trusted component from which we can bootstrap trust in other parts of a system. TPMs are most useful for three kinds of tasks: remotely identifying a machine, or machine authentication; providing hardware protection of secrets, or data protection; and providing verifiable evidence about a machine's state, or attestation.

This book describes the primary uses for TPMs, and practical considerations such as when TPMs can and should be used, when they shouldn't be, what advantages they provide, and how to actually make use of them, with use cases and worked examples of how to implement these use cases on a real system. Topics covered include when to use a TPM; TPM concepts and functionality; programming introduction; provisioning: getting the TPM ready to use; first steps: TPM keys; machine authentication; data protection; attestation; other TPM features; software and specifications; and troubleshooting. Appendices contain basic cryptographic concepts; command equivalence and requirements charts; and complete code samples.

About this title

From the Author

I spent ten years working with Trusted Platform Modules, and discovering that the documentation was sparse and largely aimed at people who already had a lot of background knowledge. Many of the most critical pieces of information could only be found in the long and complex specifications for the chips. This book is intended to fill in much of that gap, for multiple generations of TPM technology. Whether you're not quite sure what a TPM is or why you should care, or are an expert trying to figure out how to solve a particular real-world problem, this book should provide the tools and information you need. For those familiar with the field, it may be worth noting that this book is written from outside of the Trusted Computing Group's perspective: while I support many of their initiatives, the book frankly discusses the pros and cons of some of their TPM-adjacent technologies as of the time the book was written, and non-TCG technologies are also discussed at length. An electronic version of the book is available from the publisher; however, one of the key features of this book is a comprehensive and detailed index, designed to make finding the content you need easy even in the physical copy, in contrast to many modern technical books. I use it routinely for my own reference.

About the Author

Ariel Segall has been working professionally with trusted computing technologies since graduating from MIT in 2004. She spent more than a decade at the MITRE corporation researching and implementing a wide variety of secure system designs built on TPMs and related technologies, aimed at both government and enterprise use cases. Ariel was an active contributor in the Trusted Computing Group and primary specification author for their Virtualization Working Group for several years, and has taught multiple courses on TPMs and related topics. She is currently working as a security architect and trusted computing expert at Akamai Technologies.

Edition details

• Publisher: The Institution of Engineering and Technology
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1849198934
• ISBN 13: 9781849198936
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 384