Enhanced privacy ID

An example usage for EPID is to prove that a device is a genuine device. A verifier wishing to know that a part was genuine would ask the part to sign a cryptographic nonce with its EPID key. The part would sign the nonce and also provide a proof that the EPID key was not revoked. The verifier after checking the validity of the signature and proof would know that the part was genuine. With EPID, this proof is anonymous and unlinkable.[8]

EPID can be used to attest that a platform can securely stream digital rights management (DRM)-protected content because it has a minimum level of hardware security. The Intel Insider program uses EPID for platform attestation to the rights-holder.

Data Protection Technology (DPT) for Transactions is a product for doing a 2-way authentication of a point of sale (POS) terminal to a backend server based on EPID keys. Using hardware roots of trust based on EPID authentication, the initial activation and provisioning of a POS terminal can securely be performed with a remote server. In general, EPID can be used as the basis to securely provision any cryptographic key material over the air or down the wire with this method.

For securing the IoT, EPID can be used to provide authentication while also preserving privacy. EPID keys placed in devices during manufacturing are ideal for provisioning other keys for other services in a device. EPID keys can be used in devices for services while not allowing users to be tracked by their IoT devices using these services. Yet if required, a known transaction can be used for when an application and user choose (or require) the transaction to be unambiguously known (e.g., a financial transaction). EPID can be used for both persistent identity and anonymity. Whereas alternative approaches exist for persistent identity, it is difficult to convert persistent identity to anonymous identity. EPID can serve both requirements and can enable anonymous identity in a mode of operation that enables persistence, as well. Thus, EPID is ideal for the broad range of anticipated IoT uses.

Security and privacy are foundational to the IoT. Since IoT security and privacy extend beyond Intel processors to other chipmaker's processors in sensors, Intel announced on December 9, 2014 their intent to license EPID broadly to other chip manufacturers for Internet of things applications. On August 18, 2015, Intel jointly announced the licensing of EPID to Microchip and Atmel, and showed it running on a Microchip microcontroller at the Intel Developers Forum.[9]

Internet of things has been described as a "network of networks"[10] where internal workings of one network may not be appropriate to disclose to a peer or foreign network. For example, a use case involving redundant or spare IoT devices facilitates availability and serviceability objectives, but network operations that load balances or replaces different devices need not be reflected to peer or foreign networks that "share" a device across network contexts. The peer expects a particular type of service or data structure but likely doesn't need to know about device failover, replacement or repair. EPID can be used to share a common public key or certificate that describes and attests the group of similar devices used for redundancy and availability, but doesn't allow tracking of specific device movements. In many cases, peer networks do not want to track such movements as it would require, potentially, maintaining context involving multiple certificates and device lifecycles. Where privacy is also a consideration, the details of device maintenance, failover, load balancing and replacement cannot be inferred by tracking authentication events.

Because of EPID's privacy preserving properties, it is ideal for IoT Device identity to allow a device to securely and automatically onboard itself into an IoT Service immediately at the first power on of the device. Essentially the device performs a secure boot, and then before anything else, reaches out across the internet to find the IoT Service that the new owner has chosen for managing the device. An EPID attestation is integral to this initial communication. As a consequence of the EPID attestation, a secure channel is created between the device and IoT Service. Because of the EPID attestation, the IoT Service knows it is talking to the real IoT Device. (Using the secure channel created, there is reciprocal attestation so the IoT Device knows it is talking to the IoT Service the new owner selected to manage it.) Unlike PKI, where the key is unchanging transaction to transaction, an adversary lurking on the network cannot see and correlate traffic by the key used when EPID is employed. Thus privacy of onboarding is preserved and adversaries can no longer collect data to create attack maps for later use when future IoT Device vulnerabilities are discovered. Moreover, additional keys can be securely provisioned over the air or down the wire, the latest version of software, perhaps specific to the IoT Service, can be downloaded and default logins disabled to secure the IoT Device without operator intervention.

On October 3, 2017, Intel announced Intel Secure Device Onboard,[11] a software solution to help IoT Device Manufacturers and IoT Cloud Services privately, securely and quickly onboard IoT Devices into IoT Services. The objective is to onboard "Any Device to Any IoT Platform"[12] for a "superior Onboarding experience and ecosystem enablement ROI". The use cases and protocols from SDO have been submitted to the FIDO Alliance IoT working group.