New GlobalPlatform APIs Connect Biometric Sensors to TEE

“…GlobalPlatform says its new Trusted UI APIs allow for the biometric sensors of a given device to be connected to the TEE.”

GlobalPlatform has announced enhanced functionality for its Trusted User Interface APIs.

The Trusted UI is, in a sense, an extension of the Trusted Execution Environment concept put into use in so many of today’s mobile devices. It allows a device to process all of its user interface information in a TEE, ensuring that whatever information is displayed on a smartphone screen, for example, is processed and stored within an isolated compartment of the device’s processor, so that even if malware is present on the device, it cannot reach that information.

Now, GlobalPlatform says its new Trusted UI APIs allow for the biometric sensors of a given device to be connected to the TEE. That offers greater protection for biometric credentials such as fingerprint and iris scans, which are increasingly used for user authentication on smartphones and other consumer hardware. As GlobalPlatform Technical Director Gil Bernabeu explains in a statement announcing the upgraded APIs, “Our work in collaboration with FIDO Alliance and IFAA on the Trusted UI moves away from PINs and passwords processed in the vulnerable device OS, to a world where all sensitive user interactions are secured in the hardware of the TEE.”

The development is well-timed, arriving right after the launch of the new FIDO2 standards that, among other things, enable biometric authentication through a web browser. In its statement, GlobalPlatform suggested it is now working to publish a new module in its TEE Protection Profile specification, which will allow products to be certified via its TEE Certification Scheme.

–

May 1, 2018 – by Alex Perala