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Tools: Hardware Root of Trust & Provisioning

1. Introduction​

A Hardware Root of Trust (RoT) is a secure, immutable foundation within a device's hardware that the rest of the system can rely on. It is the cornerstone for critical security functions like Secure Boot and cryptographic operations.

For a detailed explanation of the compliance requirements that a Hardware RoT helps to meet, see our implementation guides on Unique Device Identity and Secure Boot.

2. Build vs. Buy: A Two-Part Decision​

The choice in this category breaks down into two distinct parts: the hardware itself, and the software ecosystem required to use it.

Part 1: The Silicon (The "Must Buy")​

The first part of the decision is straightforward: you must buy a hardware component. A manufacturer cannot build their own secure microcontrollers from scratch. The design, fabrication, and certification of secure silicon is a multi-billion dollar industry requiring immense, specialized expertise.

Part 2: The Integration (The Real "Build vs. Buy")​

Once you have selected a hardware RoT, the real strategic choice emerges: how do you build the secure processes, like provisioning and boot, that rely on it?

  • The "Build" Approach: This involves buying the secure silicon and integrating it yourself. Your team would be responsible for writing the low-level drivers to communicate with the chip, integrating an open-source bootloader like U-Boot, creating a process for signing firmware images, and managing the secure distribution of keys and certificates. This path offers maximum control but requires deep, specialized expertise and significant engineering time.

  • The "Buy" Approach: This involves using a commercial platform that provides a full software stack on top of the hardware. These platforms provide an SDK that abstracts away the low-level hardware complexity, along with cloud services to manage the entire identity lifecycle. This path accelerates time-to-market and reduces risk by relying on a vendor's expertise, but involves license costs and vendor lock-in.

For most teams, buying an integrated platform is the most secure and cost-effective path to achieving a compliant Secure Boot implementation.

3. Tooling Landscape​

The tools and platforms in this category help manufacturers either create this identity at the point of manufacture or leverage hardware that already contains a secure identity, which is the essential first step in building a Secure Boot process.

ToolTypeDescription
QuarkLink💰A hardware-agnostic software platform that automates the provisioning of credentials and keys to a hardware RoT. It provides an SDK and tools to simplify the implementation of on-device security features like Secure Boot.
Zymbit💰Provides secure compute modules and security supervisors that act as a hardware root of trust, protecting keys and managing critical security functions for single-board computers.
Microchip Trust Platform💰A service for securely provisioning Microchip's secure element and crypto-authentication ICs with credentials and keys before they are shipped to the customer's factory.
NXP EdgeLock SE05x💰A family of secure elements that come pre-provisioned or can be securely provisioned to act as a hardware root of trust for IoT devices.
U-Boot🐙A widely-used open-source bootloader for embedded systems. Its 'Verified Boot' feature is a key component for building a compliant Secure Boot implementation.

Type: 💰=Commercial, 🐙=Open-Source