Towards Heterogeneous Remote Attestation Protocols

Remote attestation protocols are valuable tools to cryptographically verify the integrity of remote software stacks. Usually these protocols rely on a specific hardware-based trusted computing technology to provide their security guarantees. However, especially in distributed settings with many collaborating platforms it is not always feasible to use protocols developed exclusively for one trusted computing technology. In this work we explore the possibility of conducting heterogeneous remote attestations between endpoints utilizing different trusted computing technologies. We motivate the benefits of such attestations in the light of distributed systems and present a list of requirements for a working heterogeneous remote attestation protocol. Then we propose a remote attestation mechanism that can securely link Intel SGX enclaves, TPM-based trusted applications, as well as ARM TrustZone devices with an attested and encrypted communication channel. Finally we outline how this mechan ism can be integrated into an established remote attestation protocol.