Definition: Highly reliable hardware, firmware, and software components that perform specific, critical security functions. Because roots of trust are inherently trusted, they must be secure by design. Roots of trust provide a solid foundation upon which security and trust can be built.
Explanation
Encryption, signing, authentication, and authenticated key exchange are all cryptographic operations that rely on secret keys that must be kept secure and remain secret. Therefore, any deployment of cryptography must be carefully considered on the basis of how the secret keys are stored and protected. A robust method of protection is critical in order to become the ‘root of trust’ - the foundation of trust for the entire computing ecosystem. A root of trust is a vital component of any Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and Symmetric Key Infrastructures to generate and protect root Certificate Authority keys which are required for:
Secure Root of trust functions usually include hardware security modules. A hardware root of trust serves as the foundation for all secure operations of a computing system. It generates, protects and stores the keys that are needed for cryptographic functions within its secure environment, and it is generally part of the secure boot process that provides the foundation for a software chain of trust. The concept in a hardware root of trust stands out as highly effective compared to lower-level security measures. It is mandatory in many industry-grade standards and regulations (e.g., government, banking, military). A programmable hardware root of trust is designed to be updated on a regular basis in order to keep up with the latest network, app, and device threats and exploitations. Solutions Blog posts Related products
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The information below describe the features of the Trusted Bootchain and in particular the i.MX Secure Architecture. Secure Boot / Chain of TrustEnsure your device is not running tampered software by verifying its authenticity before execution. Establish software authenticity all the way from the bootloader to user applications. Our secure boot services help implement:
Nowadays, with the growth of the number of connected devices (IoT, home automation, industry 4.0, …) security risks are increasing and are a big concern. Hackers can attack simple objects like home sensors, but also payment systems or critical-mission systems on dangerous plants, and they can do it in a simple way if we not think about protecting our products. Attacks can be driven locally or remotely, and in a physical or in a logical (software) manner. Moreover, decommissioned products can be used to extract useful data that can helps to hack installed ones. From these considerations it’s clear that taking care on products protection must be done at the very early start of the project, and should be thought without minimizing possible risks. IEC defines a series of standards in IEC62443 regulation, that provides general requirements (called foundational requirements) to address and mitigate current and future security vulnerabilities in industrial automation and control systems. To fulfill these requirements and to allow users to execute critical software in a trusted environment, ARM defines various peripherals and technologies on its chips. One of these technologies is the secure boot, which allows to be confident that only software produced by you can be executed on the SOC. In the following picture are described the STM32MP1 trusted boot features.  There are two possible solutions for ARM SoC that runs on every power cycle. Trusted Execution
High Assurance Boot
HAB Secure Boot chainSecure boot on NXP i.MX chips is named High Assurance Boot (HAB). It is also possible to encrypt your software to protect it from reverse-engineering. Therefore, where cryptography comes in, we have to deal with keys, and especially about keys protection: to not vanish the work done on our device to secure it, we have to protect our private keys with extreme diligence (but that’s another story). Basically, HAB section in chip’s BootROM can verify if a software is authentic (based on its signature) or can decrypt it if is encrypted. Encryption, decryption and hashing operations are done via hardware by dedicated peripherals to ensure fast operations. This image illustrates the procedure to sign a software: n this case asymmetric cryptography is used: software image hash is encrypted with the private key and is deployed with its signature on device flash. The public key is burned in chip’s OTP zone. After enabling secure boot feature, at every boot HAB takes image signature and decrypt it with the public key, calculates software image hash and compare the two hashes: software will be executed only if they are equal. With encrypted images, the workflow is a little different: Here symmetric cryptography is involved: the secret key used to encrypt image is stored on the device in a key blob, generated by the device itself (using manufacturing tool) encrypting the secret key with a univocal, non-knowable and non-readable internal key programmed on-chip by NXP at production time. At boot time, HAB decrypts secret key, uses it to decrypt software image and runs it. With image encryption, also authenticity is assured. More details Document Number: AN4581 – NXP Semiconductors Application Note – Secure Boot on i.MX 50, i.MX 53, i.MX 6 and i.MX 7 Series using HABv4 : https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/application-note/AN4581.pdf Keywords
ConclusionSecuring a device may seem a simple subject, but there are many aspects and considerations involved more than the ones showed in this simple introduction. KOAN can assist you to build trusted devices and can help you to improve your development cycle with a plethora of services. |
What is meant by the chain of trust in boot security?
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