Challenges for Trusted Computing

This article identifies and discusses some of the key challenges that need to be addressed if the vision of Trusted Computing is to become reality. Topics addressed include issues with setting up and maintaining the PKI required to support the full set of Trusted Computing functionality, the practical use and verification of attestation evidence, and backwards compatibility, usability and compliance issues

Towards a new framework for TPM compliance testing

Trusted Computing Group (TCG) has proposed the Trusted Computing (TC) concept. Subsequently, TC becomes a common base for many new computing platforms, called Trusted Platform (TP) architecture (hardware and software) that, practically, has a built-in trusted hardware component mounted at the hardware layer and a corresponding trusted software component installed at the operating system level. The trusted hardware component is called Trusted Platform Module (TPM) whose specification has been issued by TCG group and it is implemented by the industry as a tamper- resistant integrated circuit. In practice, the security of an IT TPM-enabled system relies on the correctness of its mounted TPM. Thus, TPM testing is urgently needed to assist in building confidence of the users on the security functionality provided by the TPM. This paper presents the state of the art of the modelling methods being used in the TPM compliance testing. Finally, the paper proposes new framework criteria for TPM Testing that aim at increasing the quality of TPM testing

A Forward-Secure Certificate-based Signature Scheme

Cryptographic computations are often carried out on insecure devices for which the threat of key exposure raises a serious concern. In an effort to address the key exposure problem, the notion of forward security was first presented by Günther in 1990. In a forward-secure scheme, secret keys are updated at regular periods of time; exposure of the secret key corresponding to a given time period does not enable an adversary to ‘break’ the scheme for any prior time period. In this paper, we first introduce forward security into certificate-based cryptography and define the security model of forward-secure certificate-based signatures (CBSs). Then we propose a forward-secure CBS scheme, which is shown to be secure against adaptive chosen message attacks under the computational Diffie–Hellman assumption in the random oracle model. Our result can be viewed as the first step toward solving the key exposure problem in CBSs and thus improving the security of the whole system

Business to Business Data Sharing using Trusted Computing

Businesses and Governments are seeking new ways to improve their products and services, make them cost effective and take advantage of global sourcing options. This has been largely enabled by fast, stable communication networks sharing vast volumes of data to facilitate delivery of services to customers. Sharing has led to concerns over data protection and the risks the data faces in the new open business models called Digital Business Networks. Sharing data with partners to meet business objectives requires trust from both parties. Trust is difficult to build which is why organisations use a number of different methods to establish trust such as contracts, audits, etc. These have inherent issues which cannot easily be addressed. The current security landscape of controls, countermeasures and mitigation strategies have not changed significantly therefore new ways are being sought to deliver improved security. This need is increasing as organisations move towards new open de-perimeterised seamless business process models. Trusted Computing using a Trusted Platform Module claims to offer higher security for platforms leading to better data assurance and lower risk levels as well as protecting platforms from malicious code. This paper seeks to establish if Trusted Computing can offer lower risks and greater data assurance against platforms attacks when compared with current controls. A detailed risk assessment was performed of risks to data on current platforms, and then a further comparator assessment was performed assuming Trusted Computing Trusted Platform Modules (TPM) controls were deployed. This comparison suggests that Trusted Computing does indeed reduce the platform risks to data by up to 67%. However, due to the low adoption of the Trusted Computing TPM technology today, there are currently few applications using this new technology. This is expected to change as leading manufacturers of processor chips develop integrated functions within their processors, which will facilitate more applications to use the TPM in the medium to long term. There are other challenges which need to be overcome before TPM usage becomes common place. This includes a Public Key Infrastructure with certificate authorities aiding the use of the TPM. Deployment of TPM will need to extend from mainly laptops today to servers before organisations can use them for their critical data. The microprocessor manufacturers will also need to improve on isolation technologies to support commonly used virtualisation solutions. Operating system and application vendors will also need a standard method for software hash checks support proving the integrity of software. Trusted Computing with TPM offers a great step forward in protecting data from platform attacks as the current protection mechanisms have not changed significantly over recent years and in the author’s opinion are largely not effective against today’s attack methods. The technology needs to mature on many fronts before applications are developed and organisations gain the confidence to use it. However in the author’s opinion it is simply a matter of time before the required enablers are in place to allow wide spread adoption

Security and trust in cloud computing and IoT through applying obfuscation, diversification, and trusted computing technologies

Cloud computing and Internet of Things (IoT) are very widely spread and commonly used technologies nowadays. The advanced services offered by cloud computing have made it a highly demanded technology. Enterprises and businesses are more and more relying on the cloud to deliver services to their customers. The prevalent use of cloud means that more data is stored outside the organization’s premises, which raises concerns about the security and privacy of the stored and processed data. This highlights the significance of effective security practices to secure the cloud infrastructure. The number of IoT devices is growing rapidly and the technology is being employed in a wide range of sectors including smart healthcare, industry automation, and smart environments. These devices collect and exchange a great deal of information, some of which may contain critical and personal data of the users of the device. Hence, it is highly significant to protect the collected and shared data over the network; notwithstanding, the studies signify that attacks on these devices are increasing, while a high percentage of IoT devices lack proper security measures to protect the devices, the data, and the privacy of the users. In this dissertation, we study the security of cloud computing and IoT and propose software-based security approaches supported by the hardware-based technologies to provide robust measures for enhancing the security of these environments. To achieve this goal, we use obfuscation and diversification as the potential software security techniques. Code obfuscation protects the software from malicious reverse engineering and diversification mitigates the risk of large-scale exploits. We study trusted computing and Trusted Execution Environments (TEE) as the hardware-based security solutions. Trusted Platform Module (TPM) provides security and trust through a hardware root of trust, and assures the integrity of a platform. We also study Intel SGX which is a TEE solution that guarantees the integrity and confidentiality of the code and data loaded onto its protected container, enclave. More precisely, through obfuscation and diversification of the operating systems and APIs of the IoT devices, we secure them at the application level, and by obfuscation and diversification of the communication protocols, we protect the communication of data between them at the network level. For securing the cloud computing, we employ obfuscation and diversification techniques for securing the cloud computing software at the client-side. For an enhanced level of security, we employ hardware-based security solutions, TPM and SGX. These solutions, in addition to security, ensure layered trust in various layers from hardware to the application. As the result of this PhD research, this dissertation addresses a number of security risks targeting IoT and cloud computing through the delivered publications and presents a brief outlook on the future research directions.Pilvilaskenta ja esineiden internet ovat nykyään hyvin tavallisia ja laajasti sovellettuja tekniikkoja. Pilvilaskennan pitkälle kehittyneet palvelut ovat tehneet siitä hyvin kysytyn teknologian. Yritykset enenevässä määrin nojaavat pilviteknologiaan toteuttaessaan palveluita asiakkailleen. Vallitsevassa pilviteknologian soveltamistilanteessa yritykset ulkoistavat tietojensa käsittelyä yrityksen ulkopuolelle, minkä voidaan nähdä nostavan esiin huolia taltioitavan ja käsiteltävän tiedon turvallisuudesta ja yksityisyydestä. Tämä korostaa tehokkaiden turvallisuusratkaisujen merkitystä osana pilvi-infrastruktuurin turvaamista. Esineiden internet -laitteiden lukumäärä on nopeasti kasvanut. Teknologiana sitä sovelletaan laajasti monilla sektoreilla, kuten älykkäässä terveydenhuollossa, teollisuusautomaatiossa ja älytiloissa. Sellaiset laitteet keräävät ja välittävät suuria määriä informaatiota, joka voi sisältää laitteiden käyttäjien kannalta kriittistä ja yksityistä tietoa. Tästä syystä johtuen on erittäin merkityksellistä suojata verkon yli kerättävää ja jaettavaa tietoa. Monet tutkimukset osoittavat esineiden internet -laitteisiin kohdistuvien tietoturvahyökkäysten määrän olevan nousussa, ja samaan aikaan suuri osuus näistä laitteista ei omaa kunnollisia teknisiä ominaisuuksia itse laitteiden tai niiden käyttäjien yksityisen tiedon suojaamiseksi. Tässä väitöskirjassa tutkitaan pilvilaskennan sekä esineiden internetin tietoturvaa ja esitetään ohjelmistopohjaisia tietoturvalähestymistapoja turvautumalla osittain laitteistopohjaisiin teknologioihin. Esitetyt lähestymistavat tarjoavat vankkoja keinoja tietoturvallisuuden kohentamiseksi näissä konteksteissa. Tämän saavuttamiseksi työssä sovelletaan obfuskaatiota ja diversifiointia potentiaalisiana ohjelmistopohjaisina tietoturvatekniikkoina. Suoritettavan koodin obfuskointi suojaa pahantahtoiselta ohjelmiston takaisinmallinnukselta ja diversifiointi torjuu tietoturva-aukkojen laaja-alaisen hyödyntämisen riskiä. Väitöskirjatyössä tutkitaan luotettua laskentaa ja luotettavan laskennan suoritusalustoja laitteistopohjaisina tietoturvaratkaisuina. TPM (Trusted Platform Module) tarjoaa turvallisuutta ja luottamuksellisuutta rakentuen laitteistopohjaiseen luottamukseen. Pyrkimyksenä on taata suoritusalustan eheys. Työssä tutkitaan myös Intel SGX:ää yhtenä luotettavan suorituksen suoritusalustana, joka takaa suoritettavan koodin ja datan eheyden sekä luottamuksellisuuden pohjautuen suojatun säiliön, saarekkeen, tekniseen toteutukseen. Tarkemmin ilmaistuna työssä turvataan käyttöjärjestelmä- ja sovellusrajapintatasojen obfuskaation ja diversifioinnin kautta esineiden internet -laitteiden ohjelmistokerrosta. Soveltamalla samoja tekniikoita protokollakerrokseen, työssä suojataan laitteiden välistä tiedonvaihtoa verkkotasolla. Pilvilaskennan turvaamiseksi työssä sovelletaan obfuskaatio ja diversifiointitekniikoita asiakaspuolen ohjelmistoratkaisuihin. Vankemman tietoturvallisuuden saavuttamiseksi työssä hyödynnetään laitteistopohjaisia TPM- ja SGX-ratkaisuja. Tietoturvallisuuden lisäksi nämä ratkaisut tarjoavat monikerroksisen luottamuksen rakentuen laitteistotasolta ohjelmistokerrokseen asti. Tämän väitöskirjatutkimustyön tuloksena, osajulkaisuiden kautta, vastataan moniin esineiden internet -laitteisiin ja pilvilaskentaan kohdistuviin tietoturvauhkiin. Työssä esitetään myös näkemyksiä jatkotutkimusaiheista

Trusted privacy domains -- challenges for trusted computing in privacy-protecting information sharing

With the growing use of the Internet, users need to reveal an increasing amount of private information when accessing online services, and, with growing integration, this information is shared among services. Although progress was achieved in acknowledging the need to design privacy-friendly systems and protocols, there are still no satisfactory technical privacy-protecting solutions that reliably enforce userde ned exible privacy policies. Today, the users can assess and analyze privacy policies of data controllers, but they cannot control access to and usage of their private data beyond their own computing environment. In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework for user-controlled formal privacy policies and examine elements of its design and implementation. In our vision, a Trusted Personal Information Wallet manages private data according to a user-defined privacy policies. We build on Trusted Virtual Domains (TVDs), leveraging trusted computing and virtualization to construct privacy domains for enforcing the user's policy. We present protocols for establishing these domains, and describe the implementation of the building blocks of our framework. Additionally, a simple privacy policy for trusted privacy domains functioning between different organizations and entities across networks is described as an example. Finally, we identify future research challenges in this area