Distributed Attestation Verification Through Trusted Delegation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Implementing a verifier for attestation mechanisms in a secure computing environment is challenging due to the high security and availability requirements, leading to potential breakdowns if the service is lost, and there is a need to distribute this responsibility among multiple verifiers to reduce the burden.
Innovation Solution
A two-step verification process is introduced, where a less secure device can run verification software by being first verified by a trusted verifier, forming a network of secondary verifiers that can operate in a less stringent environment and share the responsibility with a trusted verifier.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a verifier is operated in a secure computing system environment to provide high security and availability, then the trustworthiness of the attestation mechanism is improved, but the complexity and burden of maintaining such a verifier increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The verification system is segmented into a trusted verifier operating in a secure computing system and multiple secondary verifiers operating in less stringent environments. The trusted verifier performs initial verification of secondary verifiers, while secondary verifiers handle routine verification tasks, dividing the complex burden of maintaining high security across all verifiers into a manageable structure where only the trusted verifier requires maximum security.
2Productivity
If multiple secondary verifiers are introduced to distribute the verification responsibility, then the load on a single verifier is reduced, but the system requires additional mechanisms to ensure trustworthiness of the distributed verifiers
Solution Approach 1:
Before secondary verifiers can perform verification tasks, they must undergo preliminary verification by the trusted verifier. The trusted verifier validates the secondary verifiers' attestation evidence and issues indicators of trustworthiness in advance, allowing secondary verifiers to operate autonomously without requiring complex real-time trust management mechanisms during routine verification operations.
3Reliability
If a single verifier operates with high availability requirements, then trustworthy verification is maintained, but the system becomes vulnerable to breakdown when the service is lost
Solution Approach 1:
Different verifiers operate with different security and availability characteristics appropriate to their roles. The trusted verifier maintains high availability for critical trust functions, while secondary verifiers can operate with varying availability levels for routine verification tasks. This distribution ensures that loss of any single secondary verifier does not cause system-wide breakdown, as other secondary verifiers and the trusted verifier can continue operating.
Data Source
AI summary
A method to distribute verification of attestation evidence and a verifiable system are provided. Method includes receiving, at a secondary verifier operating in a verifiable system, a request from a relying party to perform a verification process with respect to attestation evidence of a device in communication with the relying party, communicating self-attestation evidence, by the secondary verifier, to a trusted verifier to generate an attestation report of the verifiable system, communicating the attestation report of the verifiable system or other indicator of trustworthiness to the relying party to indicate trustworthiness of the secondary verifier with respect to performing the verification process, and performing, by the secondary verifier, the verification process on the attestation evidence of the device in communication with the relying party. The verifiable system includes instructions of a secondary verifier stored and executed by the verifiable system to perform the method to distribute verification of attestation evidence.