Virtual Machine Image Encryption via Trusted Computing Sealing
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Solution Overview
Problem
In data center environments, ensuring the security and integrity of virtual machines and host machines is challenging due to the risk of corrupted or invalid base images, which can lead to insecure or incorrectly functioning nodes, especially when deploying applications across unreliable or unsecure computing platforms.
Innovation Solution
A method where a host machine provisions virtual machines from a catalog using a hypervisor, configures them to a trusted state, records the platform configuration state, forms a sealed blob with a private key, and stores it in a data structure to ensure the integrity and security of the virtual machine environment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If virtual machines are deployed across multiple computing platforms to scale enterprise operations, then productivity and resource utilization improve, but the risk of security breaches and corrupted base images increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by creating a sealed blob containing the private key and platform configuration register state before virtual machine deployment. This sealed blob is generated in advance and stored securely, enabling future validation of the computing platform's trusted state without requiring real-time security checks during deployment operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The sealed blob acts as an intermediary mechanism between the trust establishment process and the virtual machine deployment process. It mediates the verification by containing cryptographic evidence (private key and PCR state) that proves the platform was in a trusted state, allowing security validation without direct access to sensitive platform internals.
2Speed
If base images are duplicated and stored on unreliable computing platforms for rapid deployment, then deployment speed improves, but the integrity and trustworthiness of the virtual machine environment deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system captures the platform configuration register state and seals it with the private key before deployment operations. This preliminary action creates a cryptographic snapshot of the trusted platform state, allowing rapid deployment of virtual machines while maintaining verifiable integrity evidence that the base image was deployed from a trusted environment.
Solution Approach 2:
The sealed blob serves as a copyable cryptographic artifact that can be stored and transmitted without degrading the integrity of the original trusted platform state. Multiple copies of the sealed blob can be created and distributed to verify the trusted state across different systems without compromising the source platform's security.
3Reliability
If security measures are strengthened to prevent corrupted base images, then reliability improves, but the complexity of the deployment system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts the essential trust verification elements (private key and platform configuration register state) from the complex trusted computing infrastructure and packages them into a sealed blob. This extraction simplifies the deployment system by providing a self-contained security artifact that can be verified without requiring access to the full complexity of the underlying trusted platform module and hardware security infrastructure.
Data Source
AI summary
A host machine provisions a virtual machine from a catalog of stock virtual machines. The host machine instantiates the virtual machine. The host machine configures the virtual machine, based on customer inputs, to form a customer's configured virtual machine. The host machine creates an image from the customer's configured virtual machine. The host machine unwraps a sealed customer's symmetric key to form a customer's symmetric key. The host machine encrypts the customer's configured virtual machine with the customer's symmetric key to form an encrypted configured virtual machine. The host machine stores the encrypted configured virtual machine to non-volatile storage.