Intermediary Attestation Service for Distributed Confidential Computing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing attestation mechanisms in networked computing environments, particularly in edge and edge-cloud settings, face scalability issues due to the need to verify numerous instances of distributed software services, which broadens the attack surface and requires intimate knowledge of the architecture, making them unmanageable and inefficient.
Innovation Solution
A Trust-as-a-Service (TaaS) framework using confidential computing technologies provides an independent trust authority to verify the integrity of computing assets and entities through attestation, issuing digital trust certifications based on remote attestation operations, policy validation, and reputation data, applicable to various Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) and platforms.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If relying party initiates attestation for each service instance in distributed software deployment, then trust verification completeness is improved, but system complexity and management overhead increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary attestation service that acts as a mediator between service instances and relying parties. This service receives attestation requests, coordinates the verification process across multiple service instances, and consolidates results, thereby reducing the direct complexity burden on relying parties while maintaining comprehensive trust verification.
Solution Approach 2:
The attestation process is segmented into distinct components: service instance self-attestation, intermediary service coordination, and relying party verification. This segmentation allows each component to handle specific tasks independently, reducing overall system complexity while ensuring complete trust verification across all service instances.
2Reliability
If relying party attests all service instances of distributed software, then security trust is improved, but attack surface broadens and scalability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
Service instances perform preliminary self-attestation before being discovered by relying parties. The intermediary attestation service also performs preliminary validation and registration of service instances. This preliminary action ensures that only pre-validated instances are added to the trust boundary, maintaining security trust while enabling scalable discovery and attestation of new instances without requiring relying party intervention for each individual instance.
3Measurement precision
If relying party requires intimate knowledge of distributed software architecture for attestation, then verification accuracy is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
Service instances perform self-attestation by automatically generating and providing attestation evidence about their own security state and configuration. The intermediary service handles the complexity of architecture knowledge by managing service instance registration, discovery, and coordination. This self-service approach maintains verification accuracy through detailed instance-level attestation while eliminating the need for relying parties to possess intimate knowledge of the distributed software architecture.
Data Source
AI summary
Various systems and methods are described for implementing trust authority or trust attestation verification operations, including for Trust-as-a-Service or Attestation-as-a-Service implementations, in accordance with the techniques discussed herein. In various examples, operations and configurations are described to enable service-to-service attestation using a trust authority, to operate an attestation service, and to coordinate trust operations between relying and requesting parties.