TPM vs HSM - What’s the Difference?

Hardware security modules (HSM) and trusted platform modules (TPM) seemingly do the same thing: they manage secret keys and enable data protection.

But what does “managing secrets” mean, and what’s the difference between the two? Before diving deeper, let’s explore why computers need help with managing their secrets.

What are trusted platform modules and hardware security modules for?

Sensitive data needs to be protected, that is why data centers employ physical security. But what if an attacker gains remote access to a computer system over the Internet? Encryption can provide an additional layer of protection. Encryption algorithms use secret keys, sometimes simply called secrets. An attacker must also know the secret to decrypt the data. The additional layer of protection greatly improves authentication.

But where do we store the keys? The good ones are long and hard to remember, and we need quite a few of them for different reasons. Storing data is what computers are for. Thus, we have the Catch-22: we need computers to store encrypted data, and we also need them to store an encryption key, which itself is data!

The trivial example illustrates the need for devices like HSM and TPM. Their purpose is to allow computers to resolve the cryptography Catch-22 above.

What is a HSM?

HSM stands for hardware security module. HSMs are hardware devices that can reside on a computer motherboard, but the more advanced models are contained in their own chassis as an external device and can be accessed via the network. AWS offers AWS CloudHSM and provides a convenient services for performing asymmetric cryptographic transactions.

The basic principle of why HSMs are better than simply storing secrets on an SSD is because they allow applications to easily generate secrets and perform operations on secrets, but they do not allow them to easily read secrets.

In other words, a piece of software can use an HSM to generate a key, and send data to an HSM for encryption, decryption or cryptographic signing, but it cannot know what the key is. In fact, even physically gaining access to an HSM is not a guarantee that the keys can be revealed. Many HSMs automatically destroy keys if tampering attempts are detected.

If an attacker gains access to a computer system with encrypted data, they will not be able to decrypt it without a key. And if they gain access to an HSM, they will not be able to read the secure keys.

But HSMs can do more than just storing cryptographic keys. High-end models can offer significant hardware acceleration of cryptographic functions such as key generation, encryption, decryption and cryptographic signing, digital signing and signature validation.

What is a TPM?

TPM stands for trusted platform module. TPMs are small hardware devices that are usually embedded into computer motherboards and are available as external devices.

A TPM contains a secret key which is not accessible to the outside world. Because a TPM is usually integrated with its host computer as a TPM Chip, it can be used to uniquely sign/encrypt and decrypt data created on this computer. One practical application of this is securing boot: a computer UEFI will refuse to boot if its storage device or other hardware has been tampered with, using a TPM as a root of trust.

A TPM also allows storing other keys and performing basic cryptographic operations, similar to an HSM. Microsoft has required TPM 2.0 for users to upgrade to Windows 11 as it requires a secure boot. Windows 11 uses the TPM as key storage for full disk encryption and to power Windows Hello authentication method.

What is the difference between TPM and HSM?

So far it seems that a TPM is just a smaller HSM embedded onto a computer motherboard. This is not quite true:

• HSMs are more powerful. High end HSMs can be faster than a computer CPU when performing cryptographic operations and, in addition to enhanced security, they provide meaningful acceleration of encryption or decryption. Some are even capable of running their own operating system and executing custom programs designed specifically to run inside of an HSM!
• HSMs are generic devices that conform to APIs such as PKCS #11. They are accessible to any application that wants to use their services. While TPMs are usually more closely integrated with their host computers, their operating system, their booting sequence, or the built-in hard drive encryption.
• HSMs are meant to be used in data centers, while the scope of a TPM is usually a single system.

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Usage examples for TPMs and HSMs

All iPhones contain a TPM inside, but Apple calls it T2. This chip secures the lock/unlock sequence, the booting process and provides the encryption for the iPhone’s storage. It ensures that even if the phone’s storage is physically removed, it will be impossible to read elsewhere.

Another example is protecting data centers. Remote access to cloud computing resources is usually implemented using remote access protocols such as SSH, RDP, or built-in protocols for databases. The common configuration of these protocols requires every resource to know the key of every user. This is not only insecure, it is also impractical when the number of servers, databases, or users constantly grows. The NIST provides FIPS 140 guidelines on for Security Requirements for Cryptographic Modules.

A much better approach is to move away from key management to certificates, e.g. automatically-expiring keys signed by a certificate authority. This means that instead of protecting thousands of keys, only a single key called a certificate authority (CA) needs to be stored in a secure place, such as an HSM.

Teleport is an open-source certificate-based multi-protocol access proxy that allows data center and cloud operators to get rid of keys in their infrastructure and reduce the attack surface to a single, most secure component.

Conclusion

So, what is the difference between TPM and HSM? In a nutshell, they are quite similar but HSMs offer more features, more performance and are available in more form factors at a much higher price.