In
computing, a trusted client is a device or program controlled by the user of a service, but with restrictions designed to prevent its use in ways not authorized by the provider of the service. That is, the client is a device that vendors trust and then sell to the consumers, whom they do not trust. Examples include
video games played over a
computer network or the
Content Scramble System (CSS) in
DVDs.
Trusted client software is considered fundamentally insecure: once the security is broken by one user, the break is trivially copyable and available to others. As computer security specialist
Bruce Schneier states, "Against the average user, anything works; there's no need for complex security software. Against the skilled attacker, on the other hand, nothing works." Trusted client hardware is somewhat more secure, but not a complete solution.
Trusted clients are attractive to business as a form of
vendor lock-in: sell the trusted client at a loss and charge more than would be otherwise economically viable for the associated service. One early example was
radio receivers that were subsidized by broadcasters, but restricted to receiving only their radio station. Modern examples include
video recorders being forced by law to include
Macrovision copy protection, the
DVD region code
DVD region codes are a digital rights management technique introduced in 1997. It is designed to allow rights holders to control the international distribution of a DVD release, including its content, release date, and price, all according to ...
system and region-coded
video game consoles.
Trusted computing aims to create
computer hardware
Computer hardware includes the physical parts of a computer, such as the computer case, case, central processing unit (CPU), Random-access memory, random access memory (RAM), Computer monitor, monitor, Computer mouse, mouse, Computer keyboard, ...
which assists in the implementation of such restrictions in
software, and attempts to make circumvention of these restrictions more difficult.
See also
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Digital rights management
Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures (TPM) such as access control technologies can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works. ...
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Dongle
A dongle is a small piece of computer hardware that connects to a port on another device to provide it with additional functionality, or enable a pass-through to such a device that adds functionality.
In computing, the term was initially synonym ...
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Secure cryptoprocessor
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Trust
References
{{Reflist
Clients (computing)
Computer security