Root of Trust

Definitions

1. A hardware or software component assumed trustworthy enough to bootstrap secure verification of a system. It shows up in application security, identity, infrastructure, or incident response work depending on the environment. Teams use the concept to prevent abuse, detect adversary activity earlier, or define stronger control boundaries during engineering, testing, and operations.

   In plain English: Root of Trust is the practical security idea behind a control, weakness, or safeguard. It matters because it changes how attackers succeed or defenders reduce risk.

   Example: "During the review, the team focused on Root of Trust after telemetry and testing showed it was the fastest way to reduce exposure, tighten controls, and close a realistic attack path before the next production release."

Related Terms

• Fault Injection
• Hardware Root of Trust
• Hardware Security Module
• TPM
• Trusted Platform Module
• Hardware Implant
• HSM
• Remote Attestation