A Trusted Integrity verification Architecture for Commodity Computers

Abstract: Trust is an indispensable part of the computing environment, the validity of any transaction or information depends heavily on the authenticity of the information source. In this context, many mechanisms for ensuring the authenticity of the information source were developed, including password verification and biometrics. But as the attacks are directed towards the computing platform and the applications running on the computer, all these initial security mechanisms are not sufficient. It is essential to ensure before making a secure transaction that the system is in a good state (or say some authorized state) and maintains its integrity throughout the execution time. The emergence of the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) has added to the security feature of a computer. Mechanisms are in place which guarantee system integrity but very little is known about the state of the applications running on them. We propose a system which notifies the user if the integrity of an application is violated and stops it. Our system also compares the current system state with a known good value to ensure platform integrity