Trusted Client Agent Workload Validation for TEE Security
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Solution Overview
Problem
Cloud computing environments face challenges in securing software workload provisioning to trusted execution environments (TEEs), as malicious workloads can compromise the security of tenants and the entire cloud system if not properly validated and encrypted.
Innovation Solution
A trusted client agent (TCA) is employed to validate workloads by checking signing certificates and encryption keys, ensuring that only approved workloads are deployed to TEEs, thereby enhancing security and isolation within the cloud environment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If workload provisioning is performed without validation in cloud computing environments, then provisioning speed and ease of operation are improved, but security and reliability deteriorate as malicious workloads can compromise the system
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by implementing certificate validation and encryption verification before workload provisioning occurs. The TCA validates signing certificates and decrypts workloads using predetermined keys prior to deployment, ensuring security checks are completed in advance rather than during or after provisioning, thus maintaining both ease of operation and system reliability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a trusted client agent (TCA) as an intermediary between the workload source and the trusted execution environment. The TCA mediates the provisioning process by validating certificates, verifying encryption, and controlling workload deployment, thereby enhancing security without significantly impacting the ease of operation for authorized workloads
2Reliability
If certificate validation and encryption verification are performed for all workloads, then security and reliability are improved, but device complexity and processing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by implementing validation and verification only at specific critical points in the provisioning process rather than uniformly across all operations. The TCA performs certificate validation and encryption verification locally at the point of workload deployment to the TEE, rather than throughout the entire system, thereby maintaining reliability while limiting the increase in device complexity
3Reliability
If encryption and decryption operations are performed on workloads, then confidentiality and security are improved, but processing time and energy consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by performing decryption operations before workload execution in the TEE. The TCA decrypts workloads using predetermined encryption keys prior to deployment, allowing the actual computation to occur in decrypted form within the secure environment, thus maintaining confidentiality while minimizing the time impact on productive operations
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies skipping by rapidly performing encryption and decryption operations at critical transition points rather than continuously. The TCA quickly validates encryption and performs decryption only when workloads are being provisioned to the TEE, skipping unnecessary cryptographic operations during normal execution, thereby maintaining confidentiality while reducing overall processing time
Data Source
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AI summary
Systems and methods for providing secured provisioning of workloads to a trusted execution environment (TEE) using a trusted client agent (TCA) are disclosed. In one implementation, a processing device may receive, at a software TCA residing in a a host computer system of a computing environment, a software provisioning command from an orchestration system of the computing environment, wherein the software provisioning command identifies a workload to be provisioned to a TEE. The processing device may determine a validation measure associated with the workload. Responsive to determining that the validation measure satisfies a predetermined condition, the processing device may perform the software provisioning operation to deploy the workload at the TEE.