diff --git a/doc/system_description/system_description.md b/doc/system_description/system_description.md index 4f21f10..6603bba 100644 --- a/doc/system_description/system_description.md +++ b/doc/system_description/system_description.md @@ -34,6 +34,8 @@ functionality are: - SSH login dongles +## TKey Security Features + ### Measured Based Security The key, unique feature of the TKey is that it measures the secure application when the application is being loaded onto the device. The @@ -56,8 +58,106 @@ has - the specific device, and something the user knows (the USS). And the derived can be trusted because of the measurement being used by the derivation, thereby verifying the intergrity od the application. +### Execution monitor + +The purpose of the The Tillitis TKey execution monitor is to ensure +that execution of instructions does not happen from memory areas +containing application data och the stack. + +The monitor continuously observes the address from which the CPU wants +to fetch the next instruction. If that address falls within a defined +address range from which execution is not allowed, the monitor will +force the CPU to read an illegal instruction. This will cause the CPU +to enter its trap state. There is no way out of this state, and the +user must perform a power cycle of the TKey device. + +Currently the following rules are implemented by the execution monitor +(future releases may add more rules): + +- Execution from the firmware RAM (fw\_ram) is always blocked by the + monitor +- Applications can define the area within RAM from which execution + should be blocked + +The application can define its no execution area to the +ADDR\_CPU\_MON\_FIRST and ADDR\_CPU\_MON\_LAST registers in the tk1 core. +When the registers have been set the application can enable the +monitor for the area by writing to the ADDR\_CPU\_MON\_CTRL register. +Note that once the monitor has been enabled it can't be disabled and +the addresses defining the area can't be changed. + + +### Illegal instruction monitor + +Execution of illegal instructions will cause the CPU to enter its trap +state from which it can't exit. The hardware in the TKey will monitor +the CPU state. If the CPU enters the trap state, the hardware will +start flashing the RED led, signalling that the TKey is stuck in an +error state. + + +### RAM memory protection + +The TKey hardware includes a simple form of RAM memory protection. The +purpose of the RAM memory protection is to make it somewhat harder and +more time consuming to extract application assets by dumping the RAM +contents from a TKey device. The memory protection is not based on +encryption and should not be confused with real encryption. But the +protection is randomised between power cycles. The randomisation +should make it infeasible to improve asset extraction by observing +multiple memory dumps from the same TKey device. The attack should +also not directly scale to multiple TKey devices. + +The memory protection is based on two separate mechanisms: + +1. Address Space Layout Randomisation (ASLR) +2. Adress dependent data scrambling + +The ASLR is implemented by XORing the CPU address with the contents of +the ADDR\_RAM\_ASLR register in the tk1 core. The result is used as the +RAM address + +The data scrambling is implemented by XORing the data written to the +RAM with the contents of the ADDR\_RAM\_SCRAMBLE register in the tk1 +core as well as XORing with the CPU address. This means that the same +data written to two different addresses will be scrambled differently. +The same pair or XOR operations is also performed on the data read out +from the RAM. + +The memory protection is setup by the firmware. Access to the memory +protection controls is disabled for applications. During boot the +firmware perform the following steps to setup the memory protection: + +1. Write a random 32-bit value from the TRNG into the ADDR\_RAM\_ASLR + register. +2. Write a random 32-bit value from the TRNG into the + ADDR\_RAM\_SCRAMBLE register. +3. Get a random 32-bit value from the TRNG to use as data value. +4. Get a random 32-bit value from the TRNG to use as accumulator + value. +5. Fill the RAM with sequence of value by writing to all RAM addresses + in sequence. For each address add the accumulator value to the + current data value. +6. Write a new random 32-bit value from the TRNG into the + ADDR\_RAM\_ASLR register. +7. Write a new random 32-bit value from the TRNG into the + ADDR\_RAM\_SCRAMBLE register. +8. Receive the application sent from the client and write it in + sequence into RAM. + +This means that the RAM is pre-filled with somewhat randomised data. +The application is then written into RAM using different ASLR and data +scrambling than what was used to pre-fill the memory. This should make +it harder to identify where in RAM the application was written, and +how the application was scrambled. + +Future TKey devices may implement a more secure ASLR mechanism, and +use real encryption (for example PRINCE) for memory content +protection. From the application point of view such a change will +transparent. + +## Assets -### Assets The TKey store and use the following assets internally: - UDS - Unique Device Secret. 256 bits. Provisioned and stored during @@ -74,7 +174,7 @@ The TKey store and use the following assets internally: - CDI - Compound Device Identity. Dervied by the FW when an application is loaded using the UDS and the application binary. Used by the application to derive secrets, keys as needed. The CDI should never - be exposed outside of the application_fpga + be exposed outside of the application\_fpga Additionally the following asset could be provided from the host: @@ -84,7 +184,8 @@ Additionally the following asset could be provided from the host: third party. -### Subsystems and Components +## Subsystems and Components + The TKey as a project, system and secure application platform consists of a number of subsystems and components, modules, support libraries etc. Roughly these can be divided into: @@ -100,33 +201,31 @@ libraries etc. Roughly these can be divided into: - USB to UART controller. FW for the MCU implementing the USB host interface on the TKey -- application_fpga. FPGA design with cores including CPU, TRNG, UART - FW ROM and RAM that together form the the secure application - platform +- application\_fpga. FPGA design with cores including CPU and memory that + implements the secure application platform -- application_fpga FW. The base software running on the CPU as needed - to boot the device, load applications, measure applications, derive - the CDI base secret etc +- application\_fpga FW. The base software running on the CPU as needed to + boot, load applications, measure applications, dderive base secret etc -- One or more TKey device apps loaded onto the application_fpga to - provide some functionality to the user of the host +- One or more applications loaded onto the application\_fpga to provide + some functionality to the user of the host - host side application loader. Software that talks to the FW in the - application_fpga to load a secure application + application\_fpga to load a secure application - host side boot, management. Support software to boot, authenticate the TKey device connected to a host - host side secure application. Software that communicates with the - secure application running in the application_fpga as needed to - solve a security objective + secure application running in the application\_fpga as needed to solve + a security objective -- application_fpga FW SDK. Tools, libraries, documentation and - examples to support development of the application_fpga firmware +- application\_fpga FW SDK. Tools, libraries, documentation and examples + to support development of the application\_fpga firmware - secure application SDK. Tools, libraries, documentation and examples to support development of the secure applications to be loaded onto - the application_fpga + the application\_fpga - host side secure application SDK. Tools, libraries, documentation and examples to support development of the host applications