Secure Blue - Secure CPU Technology
Machine Organization Accomplishment | 2006
IBM researchers: Rick Boivie, Eric Hall, Charanjit Jutla, Mimi Zohar
Where the work was done: IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
What we accomplished: SecureBlue is a secure CPU technology that is used to protect the confidentiality and integrity of information on a system from physical attack. In a SecureBlue system, information is in the clear when it is inside the CPU chip but encrypted when it is outside the chip. The encryption protects the confidentiality and integrity of code and data from physical probing or physical tampering. SecureBlue has been used in 10's of millions of systems where strong security is essential. (Details are confidential.)
SecureBlue also provided the foundation for SecureBlue++. Like SecureBlue, SecureBlue++ protects against physical attack but SecureBlue++ uses "fine-grained" SecureBlue-like crypto protection that also protects the confidentiality and integrity of an application's information from the other software on a system, including privileged software like the operating system, device drivers and applications that run with root privileges -- and malware that obtains root privilege by exploiting a bug in privileged software.
Related links: SecureBlue++ Research Report; SecureBlue++ Presentation
Image credit: IBM Systems Magazine
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