Defending Hardware-based Attacks on Trusted Computing using a Hardware-Integrity Attestation Protocol

Abstract

As long as the use of distributed systems and Cloud Computing is significantly increasing, the amount of threats concerning the security of such systems and the data stored in them set great challenges on the application of Trusted Computing. In this work, we aim to discuss the Trusted Computing approaches applied on Cloud Computing security and focusing on their drawbacks on hardware verification (i.e., to attest hardware's integrity). We propose a model for hardware integrity attestation applied on Cloud Computing systems, presenting the main protocol based on the use of Endorsement Keys (EK) known from Trusted Computing. The validity of our protocol and its potentials against hardware-based attacks is proved by the combined use of verified Public-Key encryption algorithms.