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Using mobile phones to enhance computing platform trust

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Abstract

This paper presents a new method to enhance the trust of traditional computing device by using the popular mobile phone. We first propose a formal method to analyze the platform trust establishment process based on trusted computing technology, and the formal results reveal possible attack and suggest potential solutions. Then, we design an improved solution, in which the mobile phone is extended to support three trusted computing functions: using mobile phone as a root of trust instead of Trusted Platform Module, as a local investigator to obtain evidences from the local computing platform, and as a trusted agent to build a secure communication channel with an external entity in the remote attestation applications. Finally, to describe the feasibility and efficiency, a prototype of the trusted mobile phone is implemented and evaluated based on an ARM development board.

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Notes

  1. http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/guides/security/StandardNames.html#SecretKeyFactory.

  2. http://www.thesycon.de/eng/usb_cdcacm.shtml#demo.

  3. http://qt.digia.com/Product/.

  4. The host for the chip is IBM ThinkCentre M52 81114, and the TPM chip conforms to the TPM 1.2 standard of TCG.

  5. The host for the chip is Lenovo ThinkCentre M4000t, and the TCM chip conforms to the TCM specification of State Cryptography Administration.

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Acknowledgements

The research presented in this paper is supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2013CB338003) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61602455, 91118006 and 61202414). We would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments to improve the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Trusted Computing and Information Assurance Laboratory, Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Wei Feng, Yu Qin & Dengguo Feng

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  1. Wei Feng
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  2. Yu Qin
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  3. Dengguo Feng
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Correspondence to Wei Feng.

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Feng, W., Qin, Y. & Feng, D. Using mobile phones to enhance computing platform trust. Telecommun Syst 69, 187–205 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11235-018-0456-y

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