A Secure Bootstrap Based on Trusted Computing

A secure bootstrap is critical to boot operating system kernel into a trusted state. This paper presents an approach for the secure bootstrap based on trusted computing technology. The hardware base for our approach is the trusted computer, and the software base is the trust chain defined by Trusted Computing Group (TCG). Each time before the kernel is booted, the integrity of critical files and code are measured first. If the measurement passes, control is transferred to the Master Boot Record (MBR) to perform the common kernel bootstrap process; otherwise the illegally modified files will be automatically recovered.