Hypervisor Secure Communication Intermediary
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Solution Overview
Problem
Configuring secure communications in operating systems is complex due to differing requirements across protocols, operating systems, and applications, and is vulnerable to key loss if not properly hardened, compromising cryptographic security.
Innovation Solution
A hypervisor-based system that negotiates, encrypts, and decrypts communications on behalf of guest operating systems, storing keys and state information to create and maintain secure channels, thereby isolating sensitive information from potential compromises and simplifying configuration across various systems.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If secure communication protocols are configured within the operating system, then cryptographic security can be achieved, but configuration complexity increases and vulnerability to compromise increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a support system as an intermediary layer between the guest operating system and the secure communication protocols. This support system handles the complex configuration of cryptographic protocols, certificates, and key pairs, while presenting a simplified interface to the guest OS. The intermediary absorbs the configuration complexity and security management burden, allowing the guest OS to use secure communications without directly managing the complex cryptographic infrastructure.
2Adaptability or versatility
If different protocol implementations and operating systems are configured for secure communications, then broad compatibility is achieved, but configuration difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
The support system is designed with universal functionality to handle multiple secure communication protocols (SSL, TLS, etc.) and work across different operating systems and applications. It provides a unified configuration interface and management mechanism that adapts to various protocol requirements without requiring separate configuration processes for each protocol or OS, thereby achieving broad compatibility while maintaining ease of operation.
3Ease of operation
If the operating system is not properly hardened for secure communications, then configuration simplicity is maintained, but security risk increases due to potential key loss
Solution Approach 1:
The support system acts as a protective intermediary that manages cryptographic keys and sensitive security information outside the guest operating system. By storing and managing keys in the support system rather than within the potentially vulnerable guest OS, the architecture maintains configuration simplicity for the guest OS while significantly reducing security risks associated with key loss or system compromise.
4Reliability
If cryptography is offloaded from the operating system using PKCS#11, then key exposure risk is reduced, but configuration difficulty increases due to software-specific requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The support system provides a universal interface that abstracts away the software-specific configuration requirements of PKCS#11 and other cryptographic standards. It implements a standardized API layer that handles the complexities of different software requirements, allowing applications to access protected cryptographic functionality without needing to configure or understand the underlying PKCS#11 specifics, thus maintaining key protection while reducing configuration difficulty.
Data Source
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AI summary
A support system negotiates secure connections on behalf of multiple guest systems using a set of credentials associated with the guest systems. The operation of the secure connection may be transparent to the guest system such that guest system may send and receive messages that are encrypted or decrypted by the support system, such as a hypervisor. As the support system is in between the guest system and a destination, the support system may act as a local endpoint to the secure connection. Messages may be altered by the support system to indicate to a guest system which communications were secured. The credentials may be managed by the support system such that the guest system does not require access to the credentials.