Trusted Platform Module in Embedded System

How to effectively enhance the security of embedded system is an issue that is difficult to tackle and it attracts much attention in the field of information security. Relative research shows that trusted platform module (TPM) plays a crucial role in efficiently enhancing the security of information system. However, existing TPM is designed for PCs, and thus cannot satisfy the specific application needs of embedded systems. Addressing this issue, we analyze the challenges in the research of TPM posed by the embedded system environment, and propose a novel embedded trusted platform module (ETPM) that can adapt to such environment. As important components in ETPM, bus arbitration improves the platforms control ability and increases the security of embedded system; symmetric cryptography engine accelerates the speed of symmetric encryption and decryption; and system backup-recovery enhances the reliability of the embedded system. Furthermore, ETPM supports star style measurement module in embedded system environment. ETPM has been tested in trusted PDA, and experiment results show that ETPM is practical, efficient, reliable and secure.