TEE Remote Attestation for Secure Multi-Tenant Cluster Provisioning
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cloud computing environments lack effective mechanisms to ensure the security and integrity of digital assets within a multi-tenant environment, particularly in the context of cloud computing environments, where tenants have no visibility into processes to protect and restrict access to their cluster facilities, and there is no assurance of strict accountability and auditability.
Innovation Solution
Implementing multi-cloud cluster membership resource provisioning policies, using device certificates and trusted execution environments (TEEs), and a cloud attestation trusted framework, to authenticate and manage devices, and a cloud membership policy manager to ensure security and integrity of tenant clusters.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If multi-tenant cloud environment is used to share resources, then resource utilization and productivity are improved, but security and integrity assurance of digital assets deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the cloud environment into isolated Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) for each tenant, with dedicated hardware security modules and cryptographic key pairs. Each tenant's digital assets are confined to their own encrypted memory space within the TEE, preventing cross-tenant access while maintaining resource sharing at the physical infrastructure level.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a remote attestation mechanism as an intermediary that verifies the integrity of the TEE and its contents before allowing access. The attestation process acts as a trusted mediator between the cloud provider and tenant, providing cryptographic proof that the execution environment has not been compromised, thus enabling security assurance in multi-tenant settings.
2Ease of operation
If cloud tenants have no visibility into protection processes, then system complexity is reduced and ease of operation is improved, but security control and auditability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements remote attestation that provides continuous feedback to tenants about the security state of their TEE. The attestation reports deliver cryptographic verification of hardware integrity, memory protection status, and execution environment authenticity, enabling tenants to audit security conditions without needing to understand or manage the underlying protection mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The TEE automatically performs security functions including cryptographic key generation, memory encryption, and integrity verification without requiring tenant intervention. The system self-manages security policies, isolates tenant workloads, and enforces access controls, providing both operational simplicity and security assurance through automated self-protection mechanisms.
Data Source
AI summary
One example method includes receiving, from a prospective tenant, a request to join a tenant cluster of a cloud computing environment, sending a request to verify an authenticity of the prospective tenant, a tenant membership policy applicable to the prospective tenant, and a trusted execution environment (TEE) remote attestation, checking the authenticity and TEE remote attestation against the tenant membership policy, and when the authenticity and TEE remote attestation against the tenant membership policy are verified as indicative of a compliance of the prospective tenant, adding the prospective tenant to the tenant cluster.