Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring The Integration Of Memory Management And Trusted Computing, Nihal A. D'Cunha

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

This thesis addresses vulnerabilities in current Trusted Computing architecture by exploring a design for a better Trusted Platform Module (TPM); one that integrates more closely with the CPU's Memory Management Unit (MMU). We establish that software-based attacks on trusted memory can be carried out undetectably by an adversary on current TCG/TPM implementations. We demonstrate that an attacker with sufficient privileges can compromise the integrity of a TPM-protected system by modifying critical loaded code and static data after measurement has taken place. More specifically, these attacks illustrate the Time Of Check vs. Time of Use (TOCTOU) class of attacks. We propose …