Software Trusted Platform Module (SWTPM) Resource Sharing Scheme for Embedded Systems

Abstract

Embedded system networks are widely deployed across various domains and often perform mission-critical tasks, making it essential for all nodes within the system to be trustworthy. Traditionally, each node is equipped with a discrete Trusted Platform Module (dTPM) to ensure network-wide trustworthiness. However, this study proposes a cost-effective system architecture that deploys software-based TPMs (SWTPMs) on the majority of nodes, while reserving dTPMs for a few central nodes to maintain overall system integrity. The proposed architecture employs IBMACS for system integrity reporting. In addition, a database-based anomaly detection (AD) agent is developed to identify and isolate untrusted nodes. A traffic anomaly detection agent is also introduced to monitor communication between servers and clients, ensuring that traffic patterns remain normal. Finally, a custom measurement kernel is implemented, along with an activation agent, to enforce a measured boot process for custom applications during startup. This architecture is designed to safeguard mission-critical embedded systems from malicious threats while reducing deployment costs.

Keywords

• embedded system network
• measured boot
• remote attestation
• SWTPM
• secure boot
• system integrity