Trust Manager for Distributed Workload Placement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Distributed cloud computing networks face challenges in balancing the security of confidential computing with the scalability needed for sensitive applications, as limiting applications to a single secure enclave restricts scalability, while distributing workloads across multiple devices introduces significant security risks.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a method to establish and maintain a mesh of subsystems within a distributed network that satisfies minimum trustworthiness requirements by evaluating and reporting the trustworthiness of each subsystem, ensuring that only trustworthy subsystems are used for workload placement and continuously monitoring trustworthiness to prune untrustworthy subsystems from the mesh.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If application workloads are distributed among multiple computing devices in a distributed network, then scalability is improved, but security risks increase
Solution Approach 1:
A trust manager is introduced as an intermediary component that sits between the workload placement system and distributed subsystems. The trust manager evaluates trustworthiness characteristics of subsystems (such as secure enclave presence, firmware integrity, and hardware trust roots) and mediates workload placement decisions, allowing the system to achieve both scalability and security by selectively placing workloads on trusted subsystems rather than requiring all subsystems to be fully trusted
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies local quality by evaluating and enforcing different trustworthiness requirements at different levels of the distributed architecture. Individual subsystems can have varying trustworthiness characteristics (some may have secure enclaves while others don't), and the trust manager accommodates this heterogeneity by making localized placement decisions based on the specific trustworthiness profile of each subsystem, rather than requiring uniform trust across the entire distributed system
2Reliability
If applications are limited to a single secure enclave in a single computing device, then security is improved, but scalability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the traditional single-enclave security model into a distributed architecture where multiple subsystems can each contribute secure processing capabilities. Instead of requiring one monolithic secure enclave, the trust manager divides the workload across multiple subsystems that individually provide trusted execution environments, thereby maintaining security while enabling scalability through distributed segment processing
3Reliability
If trustworthiness evaluation is performed continuously on all subsystems, then security is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The trust manager performs preliminary trustworthiness evaluation of subsystems before workload placement occurs. By pre-evaluating and caching trustworthiness characteristics (such as verifying secure enclave presence, checking firmware signatures, and validating hardware trust roots) in advance, the system avoids the need for continuous real-time evaluation during workload execution, thereby reducing operational complexity while maintaining security
Solution Approach 2:
Subsystems provide their own trustworthiness characteristics to the trust manager through self-attestation mechanisms. Each subsystem independently reports its security status (e.g., whether it contains a secure enclave, its firmware version, or hardware trust root information), eliminating the need for centralized manual verification and reducing system complexity by distributing the trust evaluation burden to the subsystems themselves
Data Source
AI summary
This disclosure describes techniques for selectively placing and maintaining sensitive workloads in subsystems that achieve a minimum level of trustworthiness. An example method includes identifying at least one trustworthiness requirement associated with an application and transmitting, to a first subsystem, a request for at least one trustworthiness characteristic of the first subsystem and at least one second subsystem connected to the first subsystem. A response indicating the at least one trustworthiness characteristic is received from the first subsystem. The example method further includes determining that the at least one trustworthiness characteristic satisfies the at least one trustworthiness requirement; and causing the application to operate on a mesh comprising the first subsystem and the at least one second subsystem.