Microsoft recently highlighted its latest project in terms of its security which it has been working on for quite a long time. A next-generation processor that is directly built in the future CPUs is the Dubbed a Microsoft Pluton Processor.
The next-generation console much difficult to pirate these days but this is partly because of the new latest technology that Microsoft has been using to secure them. The previous old CPUs had a Trusted Platform Module-TPM that was used just to secure cryptographic keys used and the hardware. The Xbox One has already the technology that makes it more robust than enable to run the pirated games. Microsoft is currently aiming to introduce this on their normal Windows PCs.
Whereby there are some hackers who had successfully exploited the TPM while accessing the data that was being transferred from a CPU to a TPM that surely poses serious security concerns for users. Microsoft is also working with AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm just to combine them all into the CPUs of the future. Director of Enterprise and OS security at Microsoft, David Weston says that:
“We all shipped the Xbox that has the physical attack protection so that people cannot just hack it for the games, etc. We had learned the principles of effective engineering strategies from it, and so we’re taking that knowledge a long way and partnering with the Intel to build something innovative for the PC that will stand up successfully to that emerging attack vector in future.”
The Pluton security processor is innovative, and it complements the work Microsoft has done before with the community like the Project Cerberus through providing a secure identity for the CPU which can be attested easily by Cerberus, thus by enhancing the security of the overall platforms. The Pluton processor does this by simply storing the sensitive data like encryption keys securely within it that is isolated from the other rest of the system and helps to ensure that the emerging attack techniques, like speculative execution, cannot access the key material.
The Pluton also provides a unique and innovative Secure Hardware Cryptography Key (SHACK) technology that succours to ensure that the keys are never exposed outside of the protected hardware that even to the Pluton firmware by providing an unprecedented level of security for its Windows customers.
