Ginseng: keeping secrets in registers when you distrust the operating system
Ginseng: keeping secrets in registers when you distrust the operating system Yun & Zhong et al., NDSS’19
Suppose you did go to the extreme length of establishing an unconditional root of trust for your system, even then, unless every subsequent piece of code you load is also fully trusted (e.g., formally verified) then you’re open to post-boot attacks. This is especially true in a context where lots of third-party application code (e.g. apps on a mobile phone) gets loaded.
Many mobile and IoT apps nowadays contain sensitive data, or secrets, such as passwords, learned models, and health information. Such secrets are often protected by encryption in the storage. However, to use a secret, an app must decrypt it and usually store it as cleartext in memory. In doing so, the app assumes that the operating system (OS) is trustworthy. OSes are complex software and have a large attack surface… Increasingly abundant evidence suggests that prudent apps should not trust the OS with their secrets.
Instead of trying to protect absolutely everything, Ginseng assumes that some data matters more than others. It arranges things such that this sensitive data is only ever in the clear in registers Continue reading

This is the first PoC for the provider's newest portfolio addition, which provides SD-WAN and...
The Spanish operator is also said to be finalizing a pact with rival Vodafone Spain to share parts...
Who's the wicked queen in the data center switch merchant silicon business?