Trusted Computing

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A Tree of Trust rooted in Extended Trusted Computing

Abstract—Trusted Computing and its associated technologies are rapidly gaining momentum in the computing world. While this initiative is based on detailed security analyses, it is sometimes unclear what is meant by trust in the context of use of the technology. We study the structure of the concept of trust in the largest sense in the Extended Trusted Computing paradigm, which combines Trusted Computing and Virtualisation technologies. We propose the Tree of Trust (ToT) concept and notation in order to represent the Extended Trusted Computing platform's trust structure. A ToT is a tree whose nodes represent the various platform components, from the hardware TPM up to the running applications, annotated with trust and security statements. The ToT can be used to better understand the trust that one should put into the platform, or even to reorganise the platform according to certain constraints.

http://www.isg.rhul.ac.uk/~uqai221/ACSF2007.pdf