An open-source hardware root of trust provides transparent, auditable security silicon for commercial devices while supporting secure boot and post-quantum cryptography.
Google has revealed that OpenTitan, which is an open-source hardware root of trust (RoT), has begun shipping in commercially available Chromebooks. This marks the first commercial deployment of the hardware, following seven years of development, since the OpenTitan project was conceived to deliver a secure and auditable hardware foundation for connected devices.
A hardware root of trust is the foundation of a device’s security on which devices rest since it validates that only authorised firmware and software executed during the boot process. Unlike proprietary security chips, OpenTitan’s hardware, firmware, and verification process are openly accessible and can be examined, validated, and modified to suit specific requirements.
OpenTitan offers secure boot via SLH-DSA and is the first commercially available hardware root of trust that supports post-quantum cryptography. The OpenTitan project has undergone commercial-grade design verification and top-level testing; there are over 40,000 automated regression tests that help maintain the hardware’s design quality of the hardware while enabling independent verification.
The project is managed by a non-profit organisation called lowRISC and has been developed through collaboration between Google, academia, and industry partners. The open source nature of the project allows organisations to either manufacture their own silicon or purchase the commercially manufactured implementations. In addition to the use of OpenTitan in Chromebooks, this project shows how open-source silicon can be utilised for the production of commercial security-critical products.
Furthermore, OpenTitan also enables the reuse of verified IP blocks in other hardware security platforms.
