Hypervisor Cryptographic Module for Guest OS Image Protection
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Solution Overview
Problem
In virtualized computing environments, users face security concerns regarding the protection of guest operating system images, as they rely on third-party vendors for security measures, which can be opaque and unreliable, hindering adoption of cloud-based services due to trust issues.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a cryptographic module that intercepts and encrypts write and read operations of protected guest OS images, managed by a hypervisor, which interacts with a cryptographic device for key management and decryption services, ensuring secure storage and access within the virtualized environment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If users rely on third-party cloud computing vendors for security measures, then convenience of managing and accessing virtualized computing resources is improved, but security control and transparency are worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a cryptographic module as an intermediary component between the hypervisor and guest operating systems. This module intercepts, encrypts, and decrypts memory access operations, serving as a trusted mediator that enables security without requiring users to trust the cloud vendor's internal security processes. The cryptographic module operates independently as a verifiable security layer.
2Reliability
If a cryptographic module intercepts and encrypts all memory access operations, then security protection is improved, but system performance and productivity are worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by selectively encrypting only specific memory regions (such as guest OS images and critical data structures) rather than all memory accesses. The cryptographic module identifies and protects only the necessary portions of memory, leaving other memory accesses unencrypted and thus faster, thereby balancing security with performance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements preliminary action by encrypting guest OS images and critical data before they are loaded into memory. The cryptographic module pre-processes security operations during system initialization or image loading, rather than encrypting every memory access in real-time, which reduces the performance overhead during actual system operation.
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments are directed towards providing cryptographic services to protect guest operating system (OS) images in virtualized computing environments. A hypervisor may trap privileged operations initiated by guest OS images. These trapped operations may be intercepted by a cryptographic module. A hypervisor may trap a write operation made by a guest OS image, and cryptographic module may encrypt the write buffer and return it the hypervisor. A hypervisor may trap a read operation made by a guest OS image, and provide the encrypted data to the cryptographic module for decrypting. If the data is decrypted, the cryptographic module may provide the decrypted data to the hypervisor which provides the decrypted data to the guest OS image. Also, guest OS image context information may be decrypted and encrypted as the guest OS image is scheduled and de-scheduled on physical CPU(s). Further, if necessary entire guest OS images may be encrypted.