Trusted Computing: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 12:53, 2 August 2005

Revision as of 15:38, 4 August 2005

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=== Proposed owner override for TC ===

All these problems come up because trusted computing protects programs against everything, even the owner. A simple solution to this is to let the owner of the computer override these protections. This is called Owner Override, and it is only currently outlined as a suggested fix.

When you activate Owner Override, the computer will use the secure I/O path to make sure that you're are physically present and actually the owner. Then it will bypass the protections. So, with remote attestation, you can force the computer to generate false attestations — certificates that say you're running Internet Explorer, when you're really running Opera. Instead of saying when your software has been changed, remote attestation will say when the software has been changed ''without your permission''.

While it would seem that the idea of Owner Override would be met with praise, some Trusted Computing Group members have instead heralded it as the biggest potential downfall of the TC movement. Owner Override defeats the entire idea of being able to trust other people's computers, remote attestation. Owner Override continues to offer all of the security and enforcement benefits to an owner on his own machine, but loses any ability to ensure another owner cannot waive rules or restrictions on his own computer. Once you send data to someone else's computer, whether it is your diary, a DRM music file, or a joint project, that person controls what security, if any, their computer will enforce on their copy of that data.

== External links ==