A Practical Guide to TPM 2.0: Using the New Trusted Platform Module in the New Age of Security Will Arthur & David Challener

CHAPTER 10

Keys

As a security device, the ability of an application to use keys while keeping them safe in a hardware device is the TPM’s greatest strength. The TPM can both generate and import externally generated keys. It supports both asymmetric and symmetric keys. Chapter 2 covered the basic principles behind these two key types.

As a memory-constrained device, it acts as a key cache, with the application securely swapping keys in and out as needed. This key cache operation is discussed in the “Key Cache” section.

There are three key hierarchies under the control of different security roles, and each can form trees of keys in a parent-child ...