Hardware-Backed TLS Key Management for Multi-Tenant Tenant Isolation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cloud platforms using multi-tenant database systems face security vulnerabilities as TLS encryption often terminates before reaching the destination, exposing data to interception and tampering.
Innovation Solution
Implement hardware-backed encryption techniques to manage tenant private keys within a multi-tenant cloud system, ensuring TLS encryption is terminated at the server host, using key agreement protocols like ECDH to generate shared secrets for secure communication.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If TLS encryption is terminated before reaching the server host, then communication efficiency is improved, but data security deteriorates due to exposure and interception risks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary decryption component that acts as a trusted mediator between the encrypted communication channel and the server. This component decrypts TLS-encrypted data at the network edge or load balancer level, allowing the server to receive plaintext data without needing to terminate TLS itself, thus maintaining both security and efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the TLS termination and decryption functionality from the server host and places it in a separate network component (such as a load balancer or dedicated decryption appliance). This allows the server to focus on processing while security functions are handled by specialized components, resolving the contradiction between efficiency and security
2Productivity
If multi-tenant database systems are used to share network resources, then resource utilization efficiency is improved, but security isolation deteriorates making data more vulnerable to interception
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the network architecture into distinct functional layers: an encryption/decryption layer handled by specialized components, and a data processing layer handled by the multi-tenant database system. This segmentation allows resource sharing at the database level while maintaining security boundaries at the network layer through dedicated decryption components
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different security qualities to different parts of the system: TLS encryption and decryption are applied at the network edge for all tenants, while the multi-tenant database system internally uses standardized resource sharing. Each layer has optimized security properties appropriate to its function, resolving the contradiction between resource sharing and security isolation
Data Source
AI summary
A method of data processing is described. The method includes receiving, at a server host, a request to access a web domain associated with a tenant of a multi-tenant cloud platform; retrieving, from a database, a tenant private key and a certificate associated with the tenant, where the tenant private key is encrypted with a secret key derived from a key agreement public key associated with the tenant and a private key provisioned to a key protection component of the server host; providing, to the key protection component, the encrypted tenant private key and the key agreement public key; receiving, from the key protection component, an API response including a signature associated with the tenant private key; and providing, to a client device associated with the request to access the web domain of the tenant, the certificate and the signature, where the certificate is used to verify the signature.