RE: CC request for interpretation: are tests part of TSF?

["Knoke, Jim" <Jim.Knoke@GetronicsGov.com>]

That sounds good. Assurance maintenance tests for hardware may be
obtainable from third-party vendors, but then ADV, ACM, etc.
requirements get difficult to meet. The tests may want to run on a
third-party OS (e.g., DOS) that is unevaluatable and may do things (e.g.
change all the segment descriptors) that would cause the TSF OS to crash
if it were running. If the TSF vendor wrote their own AMT software
(which would increase the evaluation/product costs), the tests might not
to be as thorough as third-party tests running on a third-party OS.

The argument doesn't seem as strong for TSF self-tests and functional
tests, but I certainly hope that this test software will not have to
meet all assurance requirements as well as the directly TSP-enforcing
software does.


NIB:
> Getting back to the heart of the issue of whether integrity 
> tests are part of 
> TSF, the NIB believes that perhaps integrity tests might be 
> part of the TOE, 
> yet not necessarily part of the TSF.