Virtual Machine Agent for Secure Data Persistence Across Reboots
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Solution Overview
Problem
In virtualization environments, there is a challenge in securely persisting data across reboots and migrations of virtual machines, as existing methods expose data to security vulnerabilities and malware attacks, especially when access to central policy managers is not available during restarts.
Innovation Solution
A local agent on the virtual machine writes protected data from transient memory to a virtual disk during shutdown and reads it back into transient memory during startup, deleting it from the disk to protect against user-space malware attacks, ensuring data persistence while maintaining security.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Duration of action of stationary object
If data is stored on persistent memory to maintain data between reboots, then data persistence is improved, but security vulnerabilities and malware exposure increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by writing protected data to persistent storage during the shutdown process before the system reboots, and then reading it back during startup before user-space processes execute. This ensures data persistence across reboots while maintaining security through controlled timing of data access.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism where a protected data structure is transferred through a controlled interface between transient memory and persistent storage. The data is written to a protected location on persistent storage and read back through a controlled process, acting as an intermediary that prevents direct exposure to user-space malware while maintaining data persistence.
2Duration of action of stationary object
If data is transferred to persistent storage during shutdown, then data persistence across reboots is improved, but exposure to user-space malware during transfer increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs the data transfer to persistent storage as a preliminary action during the shutdown process, before user-space processes are terminated. This timing ensures that the data is secured before potential malware could interfere, while the controlled shutdown sequence minimizes exposure windows.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a rapid, controlled data transfer process during shutdown that minimizes the time data is vulnerable. The protected data structure is written to persistent storage and then the system proceeds quickly through shutdown, reducing the window of exposure to malware attacks during the transfer process.
Data Source
AI summary
Securely persisting transient data between virtual machine restarts or VM migrations involves terminating, by a first virtual machine (VM) during a shutdown process for the first VM, execution of user-space processes on the first VM, writing, by a first agent executing on the first VM, protected data from transient memory of the first VM to a virtual disk accessible by the first VM and shutting down the first VM. The process also involves initiating a startup process of a second VM, the second VM mounting the virtual disk; and executing, at the second VM and prior to execution of user-space processes, a second agent, the second agent being configured to: read the protected data from the virtual disk into transient memory of the second VM; and delete the protected data from the virtual disk.