Abstract
This specification formalizes the *Hardware-Level Zero-Trust Attestation Protocols (HZAP)*, an open-source security framework designed to protect localized edge Neural Processing Units (NPUs) on mass-market 2027 motherboard platforms from out-of-band firmware manipulation and centralized algorithmic gating. Upcoming consumer hardware integrations embed high-performance tensor execution lanes alongside centralized remote-administration hypervisors, introducing an asymmetric vulnerability where local compute agency can be remotely disabled or censored.
HZAP systematically mitigates this risk by establishing a decentralized, gate-level cryptographic handshake between independent edge nodes. By executing bare-metal mathematical checks directly within the local NPU memory space, the protocol guarantees the absolute integrity of local execution environments before any multi-agent latent tensor routing occurs.
This technical brief provides the mathematical formulation for invariant hardware attestation, a production-ready Python simulation of a zero-trust verification loop, a functional Cypher graph database architecture, and a comprehensive glossary of terms.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Eckes, Christopher L., "TECHNICAL DISCLOSURE SPECIFICATION: HARDWARE-LEVEL ZERO-TRUST ATTESTATION PROTOCOLS (HZAP)", Technical Disclosure Commons, (July 20, 2026)
https://www.tdcommons.org/dpubs_series/11061