Utilizing TPM functionalities on remote server

Abstract

Trusted Platform Module (TPM) has become an essential functionality in the information security world today. However, there are legacy computers that do not have TPM onboard and would still want to use the TPM functionalities without having to replace the hardware. Also, TPMs are not available for virtual machines hence there is a need to provide integrity of the virtual machine platforms. This paper introduces a framework to provide a remote server with TPM capabilities for the legacy computer and also virtual machines to be able to utilize TPM functionalities. In this framework, there is also a need to provide fault tolerance mechanism to ensure reliability of the server and also scalability feature is incorporated to cater for growing number of users. The main component of the framework is the 'vTPM Manager' module which resides in the remote TPM server. This vTPM Manager handles the creation and deletion of virtual TPMs, providing fault tolerance mechanism and also scalability feature for the whole system. By using this framework, users who do not have a TPM residing in their device would be able to remotely access the TPM server to utilize the TPM functionalities with the assurance of a fault tolerance mechanism and the number of users is unlimited since it is scalable. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media.