Client-Hosted Virtualization Full Volume Encryption

A virtualization layer is introduced as an intermediary between the physical storage devices and multiple virtual machines. This layer implements full volume encryption at the virtual disk level, managing cryptographic operations transparently. The intermediary handles key management, encryption/decryption processes, and presents encrypted storage to virtual machines without requiring modifications to the VMs themselves, thus improving security while managing complexity through abstraction.

The patent replaces traditional mechanical security approaches (physical security, access controls) with cryptographic mechanisms. Full volume encryption using cryptographic algorithms substitutes for physical security measures, providing data protection through mathematical principles rather than physical barriers. This substitution enables security to be enforced at the data level regardless of physical access, improving reliability while the cryptographic operations are managed automatically by the virtualization layer.

The common storage device is segmented into multiple virtual disks, with each virtual disk assigned to a specific virtual machine. Full volume encryption is applied at the virtual disk level, creating isolated encrypted namespaces for each VM. This segmentation ensures that even though physical storage is shared, each VM can only access its own encrypted portion, preventing unauthorized access to other VMs' data and eliminating security risks while maintaining resource sharing benefits.

Different security properties are applied to different portions of the storage system. Each virtual disk within the common storage device has its own encryption context, keys, and security policies tailored to the specific virtual machine it serves. This local quality approach allows each VM to have customized security requirements while sharing the same physical storage infrastructure, enabling resource utilization improvement without compromising security.