Root of Trust: The Foundation of Security

Software security is no longer sufficient enough to protect IoT devices while facing fraud, tampering and other integrity and DoS attacks. As a result, computer hardware and firmware are perceived as more dependable and trustworthy than software.

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A root of trust (RoT) is a set of functions that is always trusted by the computer’s OS such that it’s the trust foundation on which all secure operations of a computing system depend on. It contains the keys used for digital signature and verification cryptographic functions and enables a secure boot process.

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The goal of this white paper is to provide a primary introduction to RoT. This paper also explains how to choose a right RoT as the trust anchor for a novel hardware based security architecture.

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The outline of this white paper is listed below:

- Introduction

- Definitions

- What is a RoT?

- How does a RoT work?

- What are the advanced requirements of a RoT?

- How to choose the right RoT?

- Conclusion

- Reference