GTA API for the TPM (Bachelor/Master)

Fraunhofer SIT is one of the leading research and development institutes for secure information technology in Germany and Europe. Its focus is on applied research and the development of innovative solutions for real-world security and data protection issues. The Cyberphysical Systems Security group conducts research and develops novel security solutions based on Trusted Computing and Hardware Security mechanisms like dedicated hardware security chips, e.g., Trusted Platform Module (TPM), or lightweight alternatives, e.g., Device Identifier Composition Engine (DICE).

With the increase of connectivity in IoT environments like industrial systems, automotive, or critical infrastructures, leads to the need for strong security. Current state-of-the-art mitigation strategies, utilize Hardware Trust Anchors (HTAs) to shield security-critical data and processes, e.g. cryptographic keys and algorithms, in hardware isolated environments. There is a variety of different HTAs with different security guarantees and functionality. With the Generic Trust Anchor (GTA) API specification, there is an attempt to standardize the connection of different HTAs.

One example of such a HTA is the Trusted Platform Module (TPM), which is already widely used in the PC and server sector. The TPM is specified by the Trusted Computing Group and relies on an open-source TPM software stack (TSS), which is developed by Fraunhofer SIT, among others.

During your work, you will work on conceptualising the connection of the GTA API with the TPM. Based on this, a demonstrator of the GTA API, using the TPM, will be implemented, in collaboration with us and external project partners.