On 11/15/2013 4:24 AM, Thomas Habets wrote:
>
> I'm concerned with any cryptography done in software, including
> generating keys that actually matter in the trust chain or for key
> storage. Storing on disk is just the biggest concern. Even having them
> in RAM seems wrong.

The TPM key is not generated in software.  The key pair is generated on 
the TPM.  The private key is returned encrypted.

> I'm also concerned about *any* way to extract the keys from the TPM,
> even for attackers that have the user or SO PIN, or even the owner
> password and SRK (and the SRK needs to be well known for pkcs11, it
> seems).

The key is always 'extracted from the TPM' when it is created, then 
loaded for use by the TPM.

> Yes, but encrypted with what key?

Each TPM private key is encrypted by its parent, sometimes called a key 
encrypting key.  When you go up the key hierarchy, you eventually get to 
the root parent, called the SRK, storage root key.

The SRK is created on the TPM and never leaves the device.

> So in other words: How do "migratable" keys not enable a bypass of the
> whole reason for having a TPM chip in the first place?

There are controls on migration.  It requires the authorization password 
of the parent and the migration authorization password of the key.  The 
owner password authorizes where it can be migrated.

All these controls are certainly far better than just having the private 
key on your disk.  But yes, if everyone cooperates, you could migrate 
the key to a software TPM and get the private key.  That's the price you 
pay for backups.

If you don't want the key to be migrated ever, create a non-migratable 
key.  You must, however, have a plan that's better than, "If the TPM 
fails, my business fails."






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