Re: [PATCH v8 08/10] tpm: Proxy driver for supporting multiple emulated TPMs

From: Jarkko Sakkinen
Date: Wed Mar 16 2016 - 08:11:23 EST


On Sun, Mar 13, 2016 at 06:54:38PM -0400, Stefan Berger wrote:
> This patch implements a proxy driver for supporting multiple emulated TPMs
> in a system.
>
> The driver implements a device /dev/vtpmx that is used to created
> a client device pair /dev/tpmX (e.g., /dev/tpm10) and a server side that
> is accessed using a file descriptor returned by an ioctl.
> The device /dev/tpmX is the usual TPM device created by the core TPM
> driver. Applications or kernel subsystems can send TPM commands to it
> and the corresponding server-side file descriptor receives these
> commands and delivers them to an emulated TPM.
>
> Signed-off-by: Stefan Berger <stefanb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> CC: linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> CC: linux-doc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> CC: linux-api@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Alternative to this would be to have /dev/vtpmx create:

* /dev/vtpm0 for the server
* /dev/tpm0 for the client

This is how David Howell's PoC worked and that's why I want
to make this alternative visible.

The server could even respawn without container noticing it.
This solution have better availability properties.

/Jarkko