Patent · US Active

System and method for high performance secure access to a trusted platform module on a hardware virtualization platform

US8090919B2 · kind B2 · utility

7Cited by
0References
4Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateDec 31, 2007
Grant dateJan 3, 2012
Priority date
Expiry dateJun 30, 2030

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F2221/2153
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A system and method for high performance secure access to a trusted platform module on a hardware virtualization platform. The virtualization platform including Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) managed components coupled to the VMM. One of the VMM managed components is a TPM (Trusted Platform Module). The virtualization platform also includes a plurality of Virtual Machines (VMs). Each of the virtual machines includes a guest Operating System (OS), a TPM device driver (TDD), and at least one security application. The VMM creates an intra-partition in memory for each TDD such that other code and information at a same or higher privilege level in the VM cannot access the memory contents of the TDD. The VMM also maps access only from the TDD to a TPM register space specifically designated for the VM requesting access. Contents of the TPM requested by the TDD are stored in an exclusively VMM-managed protected page table that provides hardware-based memory isolation for the TDD.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.