TPM and FreeNAS

[Mark Garrison]

I was wondering, as I see that FreeNAS v9.x does support using a TPM (Trusted Platform Module), what is the benefit of using a TPM on a FreeNAS Server?

The motherboard I have running FreeNAS has a TPM port and TPMs are getting cheap enough these days, and although I can think of numerous reasons to have one on an ESXi Server, or even on a Windows Workstation, I can't think of reason why it would be beneficial to have one on my FreeNAS rig.

If anyone knows a good reason I'd love to hear it.

 

[dlavigne]

FreeNAS does not support TPM out-of-the-box and there currently aren't any plans to do so. At the moment, there is no trusted boot loader, no signed and verified kernel, no signed and verified binaries, in other words, there is no long chain of trust to get you all the way up into multi-user state, where other protections can take over.