Trusted Platforms: UEFI, PI and TCG-based Firmware
White Paper by Intel Corporation and IBM Corporation
This document
provides an overview of the interactions of the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) [TCG Overview], the firmware standards work
within the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) Forum, and implementation practices of UEFI PI-based [UEFI Book]
[UEFI Shell Book][UEFI Overview] implementations.
This paper is mainly intended for Hardware, firmware, software, and
BIOS engineers. But beyond this audience, some of the information in this paper will be valuable for IT decision makers,
marketing, and other parties.
The goal of the paper is to take away an understanding of the motivations behind trusted
platform design, the terminology of trust, how to navigate the Trusted Computing Group set of specifications and technology
that relate to platform, impact on platform firmware and UEFI, instances of deployment in the market, and some future
possible directions for hardware and firmware.
Description of each chapter The section on “Problems to Solve” will give
an overview of the attacks and industry concerns that motivate the design and deployment of trusted computing.
The next
chapter provides an overview of platform firmware, including conventional PC/AT BIOS and UEFI-based implementations.
After the description of BIOS, the implementation of platform firmware and trusted computing technology is treated in
the chapter “Platform firmware and trusted computing technology.”
Following the trusted platform firmware discussions,
some operating system use-cases of the preceding technology will be described in “OS Usages of SRTM.” Given the above
technology descriptions and use-cases, a chapter on an actual platform that implements many of these ingredients can be
found in “Platform Perspective – Putting it all together.”
After the platform example is shown, the topic of best
practices and assurance around platform and firmware design will be discussed in “Some best practices for robust platform
construction.” This will provide insight on „how‟ to implement the various features and standards discussed earlier. Once
the problems, technology, implementation instances and guidelines of today’s practices have been reviewed, the following
chapter will provide some glimpse into the future via “Evolution of platform trust.” This will include futures in both the
trusted computing and UEFI space. The conclusion will provide a recap of some key points and summary of the items treated
in the preceding chapters.
Read the full Trusted Platforms White Paper.
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Trusted Platforms: UEFI, PI and TCG-based Firmware
White Paper by Intel Corporation and IBM Corporation
This document
provides an overview of the interactions of the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) [TCG Overview], the firmware standards work
within the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) Forum, and implementation practices of UEFI PI-based [UEFI Book]
[UEFI Shell Book][UEFI Overview] implementations.
This paper is mainly intended for Hardware, firmware, software, and
BIOS engineers. But beyond this audience, some of the information in this paper will be valuable for IT decision makers,
marketing, and other parties.
The goal of the paper is to take away an understanding of the motivations behind trusted
platform design, the terminology of trust, how to navigate the Trusted Computing Group set of specifications and technology
that relate to platform, impact on platform firmware and UEFI, instances of deployment in the market, and some future
possible directions for hardware and firmware.
Description of each chapter The section on “Problems to Solve” will give
an overview of the attacks and industry concerns that motivate the design and deployment of trusted computing.
The next
chapter provides an overview of platform firmware, including conventional PC/AT BIOS and UEFI-based implementations.
After the description of BIOS, the implementation of platform firmware and trusted computing technology is treated in
the chapter “Platform firmware and trusted computing technology.”
Following the trusted platform firmware discussions,
some operating system use-cases of the preceding technology will be described in “OS Usages of SRTM.” Given the above
technology descriptions and use-cases, a chapter on an actual platform that implements many of these ingredients can be
found in “Platform Perspective – Putting it all together.”
After the platform example is shown, the topic of best
practices and assurance around platform and firmware design will be discussed in “Some best practices for robust platform
construction.” This will provide insight on „how‟ to implement the various features and standards discussed earlier. Once
the problems, technology, implementation instances and guidelines of today’s practices have been reviewed, the following
chapter will provide some glimpse into the future via “Evolution of platform trust.” This will include futures in both the
trusted computing and UEFI space. The conclusion will provide a recap of some key points and summary of the items treated
in the preceding chapters.
Read the full Trusted Platforms White Paper.
