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IBM Trials TCPA Chip Under Linux

Posted by michael on from the trial-by-fire dept.

keihin writes "From IBM: IBM's Global Security Analysis Lab (GSAL) has done extensive analysis of the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance (TCPA) chip available on some IBM systems. We have the chip running under Linux, and have studied it extensively. In order to clarify a lot of misunderstanding about the chip, we are making available some helpful white papers and open source device drivers for Linux, so that interested people can test and use the chip in an open environment."

3 of 392 comments (clear)

  1. just remember.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Real World TCPA != DRM

    Microsoft's TCPA == DRM

  2. I much much rather have TCPA then pallidium by Billly+Gates · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I view TCPA as more of a security enhancer then for drm. I trust IBM more then Microsoft to make sure Linux will run with it and it has alot of cool features.

    I like the extra random number generator chip as well as the encyption chip. I can imagine it would help e-commerce greatly and can be used for programs that require random number generation. Also hardware does not need to be modified. Only the motherboard. Microsoft wants each component to trust each and have it encyrpt everything. Its scary because its so proprietary. In the Xbox even the intel pentiumIII chip encyrpts and decypts data. Infact it will not run any assembly code unsigned. Spooky.

    I hope IBM horries up and convinces other OEM's to use TCPA before they decide on using pallidium. Also IBM has been selling TCPA systems for close to 2 years now. SO yes they are not a threat to freedom or a drm sollution backed by hollwood.

    --
    http://saveie6.com/
  3. Re:This is NOT about digital rights management by iabervon · · Score: 4, Interesting

    But it doesn't facilitate DRM at all; the private key never leaves the chip, and it isn't set until the user sets it. This makes it useless to anyone *except* the user; the MPAA doesn't have the key or even the chip. The user, at least, has the chip.

    Public key cryptography works best if the user can apply the key, but cannot leak the key no matter what.

    It would be rather different if the private key on the device was known to some content provider, but this setup couldn't be used for DRM even if you tried to. The closest thing would be a content provider giving you a file that only you could read; but you can still do whatever you want with it once you read it.