NIC Root of Trust Pairing for Encrypted RDMA Transfer
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Modern datacenters face vulnerabilities in high-speed data exchange due to the lack of encryption, making them susceptible to malicious attacks.
Innovation Solution
A network interface controller (NIC) with processing circuitry that pairs with a local root of trust to provide a key for encrypting data, shares this key with a remote endpoint, and forwards encrypted data over RDMA, maintaining encryption throughout the transfer.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If data is transmitted without encryption for high-speed data exchange, then data transfer speed is improved, but security against malicious attacks deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs encryption before data transfer by providing encryption keys to the host device's encryption device in advance. The NIC's processing circuitry generates or obtains encryption keys through pairing with the local root of trust, then shares these keys with the host device so that data can be encrypted before being transferred over the network, thus maintaining security without compromising speed.
Solution Approach 2:
The NIC's processing circuitry acts as an intermediary between the root of trust and the host device's encryption device. It receives encryption keys from the root of trust through secure pairing, then distributes these keys to the host device's encryption device, enabling the host to encrypt data locally before transmission without the NIC needing to access or manage the keys directly.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If encryption is performed for secure data transfer, then security is improved, but power consumption and latency increase
Solution Approach 1:
The host device's encryption device performs encryption operations autonomously using keys provided by the NIC's processing circuitry. The host device encrypts its own data before transfer without requiring the NIC to perform encryption operations, thus distributing the computational burden and reducing the power consumption impact on the network device while maintaining security.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If the NIC processes encryption keys directly, then encryption capability is improved, but key exposure to host applications increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts the encryption key management function from the NIC's processing circuitry and places it in the host device's encryption device. The NIC's processing circuitry only provides keys to the host device's encryption device, which then handles all encryption operations independently. This separation ensures that encryption keys never reside in the NIC where they could be exposed to host applications, while still enabling secure encryption through the NIC's key distribution capability.
4Object-affected harmful factors
If encryption operations are performed during data transfer, then security is improved, but transfer speed deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs encryption before data transfer by enabling the host device to encrypt data locally using keys provided in advance by the NIC's processing circuitry. This preliminary encryption allows data to be secured before being placed on the network, separating the encryption operation from the data transfer operation and eliminating any potential speed penalty during actual transmission.
Data Source
AI summary
A network interface controller includes processing circuitry configured to pair with a local root of trust of a host device connected to the network interface controller and provide a key to an encryption device of the host device that enables the encryption device to encrypt data of one or more host device applications using the key. The encrypted data are stored in host device memory. The processing circuitry is configured to share the key with a remote endpoint and forward the encrypted data from the host device memory to the remote endpoint.