Enhanced Security Mechanism for Cryptographic File Systems Using Trusted Computing

Trusted Computing Platform (TCP) using Trusted Platform Module (TPM) cryptographic microcontroller system was introduced by the Trusted Computing Group (TCG). It can produce, store and manage the keys used for cryptographic purpose on the hardware itself. A number of companies, including HP, IBM, Apple, Dell, etc. now release their systems with an inbuilt TPM component. This paper elucidates the method of using TPM chip for efficient management of cryptographic keys in Enterprise-class Cryptographic File System (ECFS) through Linux operating systems. It provides an extra layer of superior quality security when it comes to security based on hardware devices. The proposed security architecture is deployed using TPM tools version 1.3.8 packages and TrouSerS, a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) API with version number 0.3.9. A comparison analysis in terms of performance using TPM based ECFS with the state-of-art ECFS is presented in this paper. The results of the proposed scheme outperforms the existing systems.