Trusted computing base -------- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_computing_base

Trusted computing base

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_computing_base

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The trusted computing base (TCB) of a computer system is the set of all hardware, firmware, and/or software components that are critical to its security, in the sense that bugs occurring inside the TCB might jeopardize the security properties of the entire system. By contrast, parts of a computer system outside the TCB supposedly cannot misbehave in a way that would leak any more privileges than was granted to them in the first place in accordance to the security policy.

The careful design and implementation of a system's trusted computing base is paramount to its overall security. Modern operating systems strive to reduce the size of the TCB so that an exhaustive examination of its code base (by means of manual or computer-assisted software audit or program verification) becomes feasible.

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