Secure Host-Accelerator Communication via Segmented TEE Channels
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Solution Overview
Problem
There is a growing need for secure communication channels between host systems and data processing accelerators, such as AI accelerators, to protect sensitive transactions and prevent unauthorized access, as existing solutions fail to adequately safeguard AI training data, models, and inference outputs.
Innovation Solution
A method and system are implemented to establish secure connections between host systems and data processing accelerators using a trusted execution environment (TEE), secure channels, session keys, and cryptographic protocols, including the use of trusted platform modules (TPM) for secure boot, memory managers for secure memory allocation, and timestamp services for key authentication and session management.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If data processing accelerators are used to perform sensitive transactions, then computing productivity is improved, but security and protection from unauthorized access deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides security protection into multiple independent segments: trusted execution environment for code execution, secure channels for data transmission, memory protection units for memory access control, and cryptographic operations for data encryption. Each segment handles specific security functions independently, allowing the system to maintain high computing productivity while achieving comprehensive security protection through coordinated operation of these segmented components.
2Reliability
If secure channels are established between host and accelerator, then security protection is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The security architecture implements a nested structure where multiple security mechanisms are contained within each other: the trusted execution environment contains the runtime library and driver, which in turn contain the memory protection unit and cryptographic operations. Secure channels are nested within the communication interface, and memory protection units are nested within the memory subsystem. This nested arrangement allows comprehensive security protection to be achieved without proportionally increasing overall system complexity, as inner layers utilize and build upon the infrastructure of outer layers.
Data Source
AI summary
According to one embodiment, a system establishes a secure connection between a host system and a data processing (DP) accelerator over a bus, the secure connection including one or more data channels. The system transmits a first instruction from the host system to the DP accelerator over a command channel, the first instruction requesting the DP accelerator to perform a data preparation operation. The system receives a first request to read a first data from a first memory location of the host system from the DP accelerator over one data channel. In response to the request, the system transmits the first data to the DP accelerator over the data channel, where the first data is utilized for a computation or a configuration operation. The system transmits a second instruction from the host system to the DP accelerator over the command channel to perform the computation or the configuration operation.