DOCSLIB.ORG

Secure Service Provisioning in a Public Cloud

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Secure Service Provisioning in a Public Cloud Mälardalen University Press Licentiate Theses No. 157 SECURE SERVICE PROVISIONING IN A PUBLIC CLOUD Mudassar Aslam 2012 School of Innovation, Design and Engineering Copyright © Mudassar Aslam, 2012 ISBN 978-91-7485-081-9 ISSN 1651-9256 Printed by Mälardalen University, Västerås, Sweden Populärvetenskaplig sammanfattning Utvecklingen av molntekniker möjliggör utnyttjande av IT-resurser över Internet, och kan innebära många fördelar för såväl företag som privat- personer. Dock innebär denna nya modell för användandet av resurser att säkerhetsfrågor uppstår, frågor som inte existerat i traditionell resur- shantering på datorer. I avhandlingen fokuserar vi på säkerhetsfrågor som rör en användare av molntjänster (t.ex. en organisation, myndighet etc.), när användaren vill leasa molntjänster i form av Virtuella maskiner (VM) från en publik leverantör av Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS). Det finns många säkerhetsområden i molnsystem: att hålla data hemliga, att resurserna är korrekta, att servicen är den utlovade, att säkerheten kan kontrolleras, etc. I denna avhandling fokuserar vi på säkerhetsproblem som resulterar i att tillit saknas mellan aktörerna i molnsystem, och som därmed hindrar säkerhetskänsliga användare från att använda molntjänster. Från en behovsanalys ur säkerhetsperspektiv föreslår vi lösningar som möjliggör tillit i publika IaaS-moln. Våra lösningar rör i huvudsak säker livscykelhantering av virtuella maskiner, inklusive mekanismer för säker start och säker migrering av virtuella maskiner. Lösningarna säkerställer att användarens VM alltid är skyddad i molnet genom att den endast tillåts exekveras på pål- itliga (trusted) plattformar. Detta sker genom att använda tekniker för s.k. trusted computing (pålitlig datoranvändning), vilket innebär att användaren på distans kan kontrollera om plattformen är tillförlitlig eller inte. Vi presenterar även en prototypimplementation som visar re- aliserbarheten av de föreslagna säkerhetsprinciperna för säker start och migrering av VM. i Abstract The evolution of cloud technologies which allows the provisioning of IT resources over the Internet promises many benefits for the individuals and enterprises alike. However, this new resource provisioning model comes with the security challenges which did not exist in the traditional resource procurement mechanisms. We focus on the possible security concerns of a cloud user (e.g. an organization, government department, etc.) to lease cloud services such as resources in the form of Virtual Ma- chines (VM) from a public Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) provider. There are many security critical areas in the cloud systems, such as data confidentiality, resource integrity, service compliance, security audits etc. In this thesis, we focus on the security aspects which result in the trust deficit among the cloud stakeholders and hence hinder a security sensi- tive user to benefit from the opportunities offered by the cloud comput- ing. Based upon our findings from the security requirements analysis, we propose solutions that enable user trust in the public IaaS clouds. Our solutions mainly deal with the secure life cycle management of the user VM which include mechanisms for VM launch and migration. The VM launch and migration solutions ensure that the user VM is always protected in the cloud by only allowing it to run on the user trusted plat- forms. This is done by using trusted computing techniques that allow the users to remotely attest and hence rate the cloud platforms trusted or untrusted. We also provide a prototype implementation to prove the implementation feasibility of the proposed trust enabling principles used in the VM launch and migration solutions. iii Acknowledgments First of all, I am really thankful to my Allah who gave me perseverance, knowledge and strength to achieve this milestone. I pray Him to make my knowledge beneficial for others. I am grateful to all people in SICS, MDH and Ericsson who sup- ported and guided me in doing this work; especially, my co-supervisor Dr. Christian Gehrmann who provided me the opportunity to work in an esteemed research environment at SICS. I am indebted to all the efforts and valuable time that Christian has spent on me for guiding, improv- ing and polishing my research skills right from the very first day. I also want to express my sincere regards and gratitude for my main supervi- sor Prof. Mats Björkman who provided me the much needed motivation, inspiration and guidance in achieving this milestone. I feel happy, satisfied and proud to get the opportunity to work with the learned researchers from SICS and Ericsson who provided very useful feedback to improve my work and tune it according to the current and future industrial demands. I express my gratitude to András Méhes who provided his insightful criticism to remove the lacunae in various stages of this work; Lars Rasmusson, Fredric Morenius and Nicolae Paladi for their collaborative research and development activities; and Rolf Blom for his useful research directions. I am really thankful to all my co-workers specially Anders Gunnar, Anders Lindgren, Bengt Ahlgren, Björn Grönvall, Henrik Abrahamsson, Ian Marsh, Laura Feeney and Maria Holm who provided a unique profes- sional and research environment for me. I would specially like to thank Oliver Schwarz for his discussions (technical and social) and valuable suggestions whenever solicited. Finally, I would like to thank all my friends and colleagues including Shahid Raza, Shahzad Saleem, Zeeshan Ali Shah and many others who helped me whenever required. v vi I would like to dedicate this work to my parents and family who supported me throughout my academic and professional carrier with their love, guidance and sacrifices whenever required. Mudassar Aslam Stockholm, October, 2012 This work has been performed in the Secure Systems Group (SecSys) which is a security group within Communication Networks and Systems laboratory (NETS) in the Swedish Institute of Computer Science (SICS). Other partners that were involved in various projects include Ericsson, Saab, TeliaSonera and T2Data. The funding for this work has mainly been provided by VINNOVA through different research projects, and also by the Higher Education Commis- sion (HEC), Pakistan in the form of scholarship grant for my PhD studies. The SICS is jointly sponsored by the Swedish government and the Industry partners which include TeliaSonera, Ericsson, Saab AB, FMV (Defense Ma- teriel Administration), Green Cargo (Swedish freight railway operator), ABB, and Bombardier Transportation. List of Publications Papers Included in the Licentiate Thesis1 Paper A Security Considerations for Virtual Platform Provisioning. Mudassar Aslam, Christian Gehrmann. In European Conference on Information Warfare and Security ECIW-2011, 7-8 July 2011, Tallin, Estonia. Paper B Securely Launching Virtual Machines on Trustworthy Plat- forms in a Public Cloud. Mudassar Aslam, Christian Gehrmann, Lars Rasmusson, Mats Björkman. In 2nd International Conference on Cloud Comput- ing and Services Science, CLOSER 2012, 18-21 April 2012, Porto, Portugal. Paper C Security and Trust Preserving VM Migrations in Public Clouds. Mudassar Aslam, Christian Gehrmann, Mats Björkman. In 2nd IEEE International Symposium on Trust and Security in Cloud Computing, part of IEEE TrustCom-12, 25-27 June 2012, Liver- pool, UK. Paper D Protecting Private Data in the Cloud. Lars Rasmusson, Mudassar Aslam. In 2nd International Con- ference on Cloud Computing and Services Science, CLOSER 2012, 18-21 April 2012, Porto, Portugal. 1The included articles have been reformatted to comply with the thesis layout vii viii SICS Technical Reports • Mudassar Aslam, Christian Gehrmann. TCG Based Approach for Secure Management of Virtualized Platforms: state-of-the-art. ISSN No. 1100-3154, SICS Technical Report (T2010:05), 2010. Available at http://soda.swedish-ict.se/3993/ • Mudassar Aslam, Christian Gehrmann. Deploying Virtual Ma- chines on Shared Platforms. ISSN No. 1100-3154, SICS Technical Report (T2011:07), 2011. Available at http://soda.swedish-ict. se/4170/ List of Acronyms AIK Attestation Identity Key CAP EX Capital Expenditure Client See User CSA Cloud Security Alliance CSP Cloud Service Provider EK Endorsement Key GuestOS Guest Operating System IaaS Infrastructure-as-a-Service P aaS Platform-as-a-Service PCA Privacy CA PCR Platform Configuration Registers P rovider Cloud Service Provider P T AA Platform Trust Assurance Authority SaaS Software-as-a-Service SecaaS Security-as-a-Service SLA Service Level Agreement SRK Storage Root Key ix x T AL Trust Assurance Level TCG Trusted Computing Group TPM Trusted Platform Module TSPI TCG Service Provider Interface TSS TCG Software Stack User Cloud Service User VMM Virtual Machine Monitor Contents I Thesis 1 1 Introduction 3 1.1 Contributions ......................... 4 1.2 Thesis Outline ........................ 6 2 Background 7 2.1 Virtualization ......................... 7 2.1.1 The XEN Hypervisor ................ 8 2.2 Cloud Computing ....................... 9 2.2.1 Service Models .................... 10 2.2.2 Deployment Models ................. 12 2.3 Introducing Digital Trust .................. 14 2.3.1 The Trusted Computing Group (TCG) ....... 14 2.3.2 Trusted Platform Module (TPM) .......... 15 2.3.3 TPM - Key Management .............. 15 2.3.4 TPM Message Protection .............. 17 2.3.5 Sealing Data Remotely ................ 19 3 Security Critical Areas in Cloud Computing 21 3.1 Security Assessment of the Host Platform ......... 22 3.1.1
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Cloud Computing: a Taxonomy of Platform and Infrastructure-Level Offerings David Hilley College of Computing Georgia Institute of Technology
    Cloud Computing: A Taxonomy of Platform and Infrastructure-level Offerings David Hilley College of Computing Georgia Institute of Technology April 2009 Cloud Computing: A Taxonomy of Platform and Infrastructure-level Offerings David Hilley 1 Introduction Cloud computing is a buzzword and umbrella term applied to several nascent trends in the turbulent landscape of information technology. Computing in the “cloud” alludes to ubiquitous and inexhaustible on-demand IT resources accessible through the Internet. Practically every new Internet-based service from Gmail [1] to Amazon Web Services [2] to Microsoft Online Services [3] to even Facebook [4] have been labeled “cloud” offerings, either officially or externally. Although cloud computing has garnered significant interest, factors such as unclear terminology, non-existent product “paper launches”, and opportunistic marketing have led to a significant lack of clarity surrounding discussions of cloud computing technology and products. The need for clarity is well-recognized within the industry [5] and by industry observers [6]. Perhaps more importantly, due to the relative infancy of the industry, currently-available product offerings are not standardized. Neither providers nor potential consumers really know what a “good” cloud computing product offering should look like and what classes of products are appropriate. Consequently, products are not easily comparable. The scope of various product offerings differ and overlap in complicated ways – for example, Ama- zon’s EC2 service [7] and Google’s App Engine [8] partially overlap in scope and applicability. EC2 is more flexible but also lower-level, while App Engine subsumes some functionality in Amazon Web Services suite of offerings [2] external to EC2.
    [Show full text]
  • Delivery Services Model of Cloud Computing: a Perspective Overview
    International Journal of Innovative Computing, Information and Control ICIC International c 2012 ISSN 1349-4198 Volume 8, Number 8, August 2012 pp. 5873{5884 DELIVERY SERVICES MODEL OF CLOUD COMPUTING: A PERSPECTIVE OVERVIEW Feng-Tse Lin and Chieh-Hung Huang Department of Applied Mathematics Chinese Culture University No. 55, Hwa-Kang Road, Yang-Min-Shan, Taipei 111, Taiwan [email protected] Received March 2011; revised August 2011 Abstract. Cloud computing is a consequence of economic, commercial, cultural and technological conditions that have combined to cause a disruptive shift in the IT industry towards a service-based economy. It is a style of computing where massively scalable IT- enabled capabilities are provided as a service over the network and give rise to the \As a Service" business. The evolution of Cloud computing can handle massive data as per on demand service. Supporting this transition is a range of technologies from cluster- ing to virtualization. This study presents an expanded delivery services model of Cloud computing for enterprise and business. The characteristics and the challenges of Cloud computing are analyzed and discussed. The offerings from some Cloud service providers are also outlined. Keywords: Cloud computing, Virtualization, Cloud infrastructure, Cloud services, Everything-as-a-Service 1. Introduction. In the IBM technical white paper of Cloud computing, the concept of Cloud computing has developed from earlier ideas such as grid and utility computing, and aims to provide a completely Internet-driven, dynamic and scalable service-oriented IT environment, which can be accessed from anywhere using any web-capable device [6]. With the Cloud computing technology, user's computer no longer has to do all the heavy computing process or data storage.
    [Show full text]
  • Flexiscale Next Generation Data Centre Management
    FlexiScale Next Generation Data Centre Management Gihan Munasinghe Paul Anderson Xcalibre Communications, School of Informatics, Livingston, UK University of Edinburgh, UK [email protected] [email protected] Abstract— Data centres and server farms are rapidly becoming ing”1. Conventionally, this still involves dedicated hardware a key infrastructure component for businesses of all sizes. – as the load increases, more dedicated machines would be However, matching the available resources to the changing level allocated (from a pool of idle machines) and some mechanism of demand is a major challenge. used to “load-balance” between them. FlexiScale is a data centre architecture which is designed to deliver a guaranteed QoS level for the exported services. It does Whilst this approach is a scalable solution, it suffers from a this by autonomically reconfiguring the infrastructure to cater for number of problems. There is still a considerable inefficiency fluctuations in the demand. FlexiScale is based on virtualisation in allocating dedicated servers – at any one time, a large technology which provides location- and hardware-transparent percentage of the machines may be running at a very low services. It currently uses Virtual Iron [2] as the management load average. It can also take a significant time to load and platform, and a XEN-based virtualisation platform [5]. In this paper, we describe our experiences and difficulties in reconfigure additional servers which means that there is quite a implementing the FlexiScale architecture. Phase I is currently in high latency in responding to requests for increased resources. production - this provides a scalable, fault tolerant hardware The use of “virtual machines” is becoming a popular architecture.
    [Show full text]
  • Cloud Computing: a Review of Paas, Iaas, Saas Services and Providers
    Lámpsakos | No. 7 | PP. 47-57 | enero-junio | 2012 | ISSN: 2145-4086 | Medellín - Colombia CLOUD COMPUTING: A REVIEW OF PAAS, IAAS, SAAS SERVICES AND PROVIDERS CLOUD COMPUTING: UNA REVISIÓN DE LOS SERVICIOS Y PROVEEDORES PAAS, IAAS, SAAS Mg. María Salas-Zárate Mg. Luis Colombo-Mendoza Instituto Tecnológico de Orizaba, México Instituto Tecnológico de Orizaba, México [email protected] [email protected] (Review Article. Received el 17/10/2011. Accepted el 19/12/2011) Abstract. Cloud computing has become an Resumen. La computación en la nube se ha convertido important factor for businesses, developers, workers, en uno de los factores relevantes para las empresas, because it provides tools and Web applications that desarrolladores y trabajadores, porque proporciona allows storing information on external servers. Also, herramientas y aplicaciones web que permite almacenar Cloud computing offers advantages such as: cost información en servidores externos. Además, la reduction, information access from anywhere, to computación en la nube ofrece ventajas tales como: mention but a few. Nowadays, there are several reducción de costos, acceso a la información desde Cloud computing providers such as: Google Apps, cualquier lugar, por mencionar sólo algunos. Hoy en Zoho, AppEngine, Amazon E2C, among others. día hay varios proveedores de computación en la nube These providers offer Software, Infrastructure or como: Google Apps, Zoho, AppEngine, E2C Amazon, Platform as a Service. Taking this into account, this entre otros. Estos proveedores ofrecen software, paper presents a general review of Cloud computing infraestructura o plataforma como un servicio. En providers in order to allow users, enterprises, and este trabajo se presenta una revisión general de los developers select the one that meets their needs.
    [Show full text]
  • Cloud Computing in a Nutshell
    UNIT-I Cloud Computing in a Nutshell Cloud Computing Cloud computing is a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet. “Cloud computing is the use of computing resources (hardware and software) that are delivered as a service over a network (typically the Internet). The name comes from the common use of a cloud-shaped symbol as an abstraction for the complex infrastructure it contains in system diagrams. Cloud computing entrusts remote services with a user's data, software and computation.” Cloud Benefits Pay as you go Focus on business rather than IT Elasticity - Scale up and down based on business need Cloud Models Deployment Models : Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Hybrid Cloud, Community Cloud Service Models : SaaS, PaaS, IaaS Essential Characteristics On Demand Self-Service: Allows for provisioning of computing resources automatically as needed. Broad Network Access: Access to cloud resources is over the network using standard mechanisms provided through multi-channels. Resource Pooling: The vendors’ resources are capable of being pooled to serve multiple clients using a multi-tenant model, with different physical and virtual resources in a dynamic way. Example of resources include; computation capabilities, storage and memory. Rapid Elasticity: Allows for rapid capability provisioning, for quick scaling out and scaling in of capabilities. The capability available for provisioning to the client seems to be unlimited and that it can be purchased as demanded. Measured Service: Allows
    [Show full text]
  • Malla Reddy College of Engineering and Technology
    MALLA REDDY COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY Compiled By, Faculty of Cloud Computing Department of CSE CLOUD COMPUTING Objectives 1. To understand the various distributed system models and evolving computing paradigms 2. To gain knowledge in virtualization of computer resources 3. To realize the reasons for migrating into cloud 4. To introduce the various levels of services that can be achieved by a cloud. 5. To describe the security aspects in cloud and the services offered by a cloud. UNIT- I Cloud Computing Fundamentals: Definition of Cloud computing, Roots of Cloud Computing , Layers and Types of Clouds, Desired Features of a Cloud, Cloud Infrastructure Management, Infrastructure as a Service Providers, Platform as a Service Providers. Computing Paradigms: High-Performance Computing, Parallel Computing, Distributed Computing, Cluster Computing, Grid Computing. UNIT- II Migrating into a Cloud: Introduction, Broad Approaches to Migrating into the Cloud, the Seven-Step Model of Migration into a Cloud, Enriching the ‘Integration as a Service’ Paradigm for the Cloud Era, the Onset of Knowledge Era the Evolution of SaaS, Evolution of Saas. UNIT- III Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS) & Platform (PAAS): Virtual machines provisioning and Migration services, Virtual Machines Provisioning and Manageability, Virtual Machine Migration Services, VM Provisioning and Migration in Action. On the Management of Virtual machines for Cloud Infrastructures- Aneka—Integration of Private and Public Clouds. UNIT- IV Software as a Service (SAAS) &Data Security in the Cloud: Software as a Service SAAS), Google App Engine – Centralizing Email Communications- Collaborating via Web- Based Communication Tools-An Introduction to the idea of Data Security. UNIT- V SLA Management in cloud computing: Traditional Approaches to SLO Management, Types of SLA, Life Cycle of SLA, SLA Management in Cloud.
    [Show full text]
  • GFD-I Open Cloud Computing Interface Thijs Metsch, Sun
    GFD-I Thijs Metsch, Sun Microsystems Open Cloud Computing Interface September 16, 2009 Open Cloud Computing Interface - Use cases and requirements for a Cloud API 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1 2. OCCI Use Cases ................................................................................................... 2 2.1. SLA-aware cloud infrastructure using SLA@SOI ............................................ 2 2.2. Service Manager to control the Life cycle of Services ..................................... 2 2.3. Interoperability across Cloud Infrastructures using OpenNebula ...................... 4 2.4. AJAX web front-end directly calling API ........................................................ 5 2.5. Single technical integration to support multiple service providers ..................... 5 2.6. Wrapping EC2 in OCCI ............................................................................... 6 2.7. Automated Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery .................................. 6 2.8. Simple scripting of cloud from Unix shell ....................................................... 6 2.9. Typical web hosting cluster .......................................................................... 6 2.10. Manage cloud resources from a centralized dashboard ................................ 7 2.11. Compute Cloud ......................................................................................... 7 2.12. Multiple Allocation .....................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • An Applied Evaluation and Assessment of Cloud Computing Platforms
    An Applied Evaluation and Assessment of Cloud Computing Platforms Daniel H¨ogberg January 21, 2012 Master's Thesis in Computing Science, 30 credits Supervisor at CS-UmU: Mikael R¨annar Examiner: Fredrik Georgsson Ume˚a University Department of Computing Science SE-901 87 UMEA˚ SWEDEN Abstract Cloud computing is an emerging paradigm with the potential to change the way computing resources are used by enabling the long held idea of utility computing. This thesis aims to conduct a survey of the cloud computing platforms that are currently available and to com- pare and evaluate the alternatives. Criteria that are important to consider when choosing between cloud platforms are defined and used to compare a set of selected platforms. A case management application called Wera is also migrated to platforms to test the migration processes and the platforms in practice. An experience gained from performing migrations to several Infrastructure-as-a-Service platforms is that they are very much alike. The storage models and features available may differ but the functionality offered is essentially the same. The fact that the area is still new is very visible when working with the platforms, but even though the platforms are still evolving, they are useful. Disruptions in the availability are rare and it is surprisingly easy to migrate an application to an Infrastructure-as-a-Service platform and have it run in the cloud. Employing Platform-as-a-Service offerings requires a greater effort to get started but using them there is even more to gain by tasks like patching and automatic scaling being transferred to the provider.
    [Show full text]
  • United States, European Union, United Kingdom, France, and China
    Over the past decade, many data, information, or computational grids were built in various parts of the world. It summarizes five representative grid computing systems built in the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, France, and China. We call these national grids, because they are essentially government-funded projects pushing for grand challenge applications that demand high-performance computing and high-bandwidth communication networks. Here treat the EU countries as a single entity. Most national grids are built by linking supercomputer centers and major computer ensembles together with Internet backbones and high-bandwidth WANs or LANs. More details can be found in the cited subsequent sections. International Grid Projects Grid applications cannot be restricted to geographical boundaries. As summarized , several global-scale grid projects were launched or are still active in use today. These projects promote volunteer computing, utility computing, and specific software applications that utilizes grid infrastructure. International grids involve both government and industrial funding. The European Union has been a major player in grid computing. The most famous EU grid projects are the EGEE, DataGrid, and BEinGrid. In the industrial sector, we have seen grid providers including Sun Microsystems, IBM, HP, etc. International grids are built with fix-term projects. Some of them are no longer active to provide public services at the end of funding. Assignment Questions: 1. Explain in detail about OGSA . 2.Explain in detail about the requirements of OGSA. 3.Breifly explain about the data intensive grid service models. 4.Explain briefly about the various OGSA services. 5.Describe in detail about grid migration services and its security services.
    [Show full text]
  • IBM Data Center Networking Planning for Virtualization and Cloud Computing
    Front cover IBM Data Center Networking Planning for Virtualization and Cloud Computing Drivers for change in the data center IBM systems management networking capabilities The new data center design landscape Marian Friedman Michele Girola Mark Lewis Alessio M. Tarenzio ibm.com/redbooks International Technical Support Organization IBM Data Center Networking: Planning for Virtualization and Cloud Computing May 2011 SG24-7928-00 Note: Before using this information and the product it supports, read the information in “Notices” on page vii. First Edition (May 2011) © Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 2011. All rights reserved. Note to U.S. Government Users Restricted Rights -- Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp. Contents Notices . vii Trademarks . viii Preface . ix The team who wrote this book . x Now you can become a published author, too! . xi Comments welcome. xi Stay connected to IBM Redbooks . xii Chapter 1. Drivers for a dynamic infrastructure. 1 1.1 Key operational challenges . 3 1.1.1 Costs and service delivery . 4 1.1.2 Energy efficiency. 5 1.1.3 Business resiliency and security . 5 1.1.4 Changing applications and business models . 5 1.1.5 Harnessing new technologies to support the business . 6 1.1.6 Evolving business models. 6 1.2 Cloud computing can change how IT supports business . 7 1.2.1 The spectrum of cloud solutions . 8 1.3 Benefits and challenges of cloud computing . 10 1.4 Perceived barriers to cloud computing . 12 1.5 Implications for today’s CIO . 16 1.6 Dynamic infrastructure business goals . 16 1.6.1 Reduce cost .
    [Show full text]
  • Improving Virtualization Security by Splitting Hypervisor Into Smaller Components
    Improving Virtualization Security by Splitting Hypervisor into Smaller Components Wuqiong Pan1;2, Yulong Zhang2, Meng Yu2, and Jiwu Jing1 1 State Key Laboratory of Information Security, Institute of Information Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China {wqpan,jing}@lois.cn 2 Department of Computer Science, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, 23284 USA {wpan,zhangy44,myu}@vcu.edu Abstract. In cloud computing, the security of infrastructure is deter- mined by hypervisor (or Virtual Machine Monitor, VMM) designs. Un- fortunately, in recent years, many attacks have been developed to com- promise the hypervisor, taking over all virtual machines running above the hypervisor. Due to the functions a hypervisor provides, it is very hard to reduce its size. Including a big hypervisor in the Trusted Computing Base (TCB) is not acceptable for a secure system design. Several secure, small, and innovative hypervisor designs, e.g., TrustVisor, CloudVisor, etc., have been proposed to solve the problem. However, these designs either have reduced functionalities or pose strong restrictions to the vir- tual machines. In this paper, we propose an innovative hypervisor design that splits hypervisor's functions into a small enough component in the TCB, and other components to provide full functionalities. Our design can significantly reduce the TCB size without sacrificing functionalities. Our experiments also show acceptable costs of our design. Keywords: VMM, Hypervisor, Cloud computing, TCB 1 Introduction Virtualization techniques allow multiple operating systems (OSs) to run concur- rently on a host computer. By sharing hardware, resource utilization can greatly be improved. Virtualization is also the key technology of cloud computing. Some software, such as Xen [1], can provide hardware virtualization by adding a new software layer called hypervisor beneath all Virtual Machines (VMs).
    [Show full text]
  • Improving Virtualization Security by Splitting Hypervisor Into Smaller Components Wuqiong Pan, Yulong Zhang, Meng Yu, Jiwu Jing
    Improving Virtualization Security by Splitting Hypervisor into Smaller Components Wuqiong Pan, Yulong Zhang, Meng Yu, Jiwu Jing To cite this version: Wuqiong Pan, Yulong Zhang, Meng Yu, Jiwu Jing. Improving Virtualization Security by Splitting Hypervisor into Smaller Components. 26th Conference on Data and Applications Security and Privacy (DBSec), Jul 2012, Paris, France. pp.298-313, 10.1007/978-3-642-31540-4_23. hal-01534758 HAL Id: hal-01534758 https://hal.inria.fr/hal-01534758 Submitted on 8 Jun 2017 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution| 4.0 International License Improving Virtualization Security by Splitting Hypervisor into Smaller Components Wuqiong Pan1;2, Yulong Zhang2, Meng Yu2, and Jiwu Jing1 1 State Key Laboratory of Information Security, Institute of Information Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China {wqpan,jing}@lois.cn 2 Department of Computer Science, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, 23284 USA {wpan,zhangy44,myu}@vcu.edu Abstract. In cloud computing, the security of infrastructure is deter- mined by hypervisor (or Virtual Machine Monitor, VMM) designs. Un- fortunately, in recent years, many attacks have been developed to com- promise the hypervisor, taking over all virtual machines running above the hypervisor.
    [Show full text]