Preemption of a container in a secure computation environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12050719-B2
Application number	US-202117321089-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 14, 2021
Priority date	Dec 14, 2015
Publication date	Jul 30, 2024
Grant date	Jul 30, 2024

Abstract

A container corresponding to executable code may be received. The container may be executed in a secure computation environment by performing one or more operations specified by the executable code of the container. An instruction to terminate the executing of the container may be received from a high level operating system (HLOS) that is external to the secure computation environment. A determination may be made as to whether the container is associated with a preemption privilege and the executing of the container may be terminated after receiving the instruction from the HLOS based on the determination of whether the container is associated with the preemption privilege.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
executing a container in a secure computation environment by performing one or more operations specified by executable code of the container;
determining a number of containers in a container pipeline that have not yet been executed in the secure computation environment;
determining whether the number of containers exceeds a threshold number of containers;
terminating execution of the container after a first period of time has elapsed responsive to the number of containers not exceeding the threshold number of containers; and
terminating execution of the container after a second period of time has elapsed responsive to the number of containers exceeding the threshold number of containers, wherein the second period of time is less than the first period of time.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first period of time is associated with a watchdog timer, wherein the watchdog timer corresponds to a maximum amount of time for the secure computation environment to execute the container.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first period of time is associated with a preemption privilege.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that the container is associated with a preemption privilege by verifying a cryptographic signature of the container during execution of the container; and
adding an amount of time to the first period of time or the second period of time responsive to a determination of the container being associated with the preemption privilege.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein determining whether the container is associated with the preemption privilege comprises:
verifying that the cryptographic signature is from a root entity that is associated with the container.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, from a high level operating system (HLOS) that is external to the secure computation environment, an instruction to terminate the executing of the container; and
ignoring the instruction from the HLOS until the terminating the executing of the container after the second period of time has elapsed in response to determining that the container is associated with a preemption privilege.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining whether an operation of the one or more operations specified by the executable code of the container that is currently being performed corresponds to a modification of a resource associated with the secure computation environment,
wherein the terminating of the executing of the container is further based on the determination of whether the operation that is currently being performed corresponds to the modification of the resource so that the terminating of the executing of the container is performed after a completion of the operation that corresponds to the modification of the resource.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the modification of the resource is a write operation to one-time programmable (OTP) memory.

9. A system comprising:
a memory; and
a processing device operatively coupled with the memory to:
execute a container in a secure computation environment by performing one or more operations specified by executable code of the container;
determine a number of containers in a container pipeline that have not yet been executed in the secure computation environment;
determine whether the number of containers exceeds a threshold number of containers;
terminate execution of the container after a first period of time has elapsed responsive to the number of containers not exceeding the threshold number of containers; and
terminate execution of the container after a second period of time has elapsed responsive to the number of containers exceeding the threshold number of containers, wherein the second period of time is less than the first period of time.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the first period of time is associated with a watchdog timer, wherein the watchdog timer corresponds to a maximum amount of time for the secure computation environment to execute the container.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein the processing device is further to:
determine that the container is associated with a preemption privilege by verifying a cryptographic signature of the container during execution of the container,
wherein, to terminate execution of the container, the processing device is further to terminate execution of the container further based on a determination of whether an operation of the one or more operations specified by the executable code of the container that is currently being performed corresponds to a modification of a resource so that termination of execution of the container is performed after a completion of the operation that corresponds to the modification of the resource.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the modification of the resource is a write operation to one-time programmable (OTP) memory.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein to determine that the container is associated with the preemption privilege, the processing device is further to:
verify that the cryptographic signature is from a root entity that is associated with the container; and
add an amount of time to the first period of time or the second period of time in response to verifying the cryptographic signature.

14. The system of claim 9 , wherein the processing device is further to:
receive, from a high level operating system (HLOS) that is external to the secure computation environment, an instruction to terminate the executing of the container; and
ignore the instruction from the HLOS until the terminating execution of the container after the second period of time has elapsed in response to determining that the container is associated with a preemption privilege.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:
executing a container in a secure computation environment by performing one or more operations specified by executable code of the container;
determining a number of containers in a container pipeline that have not yet been executed in the secure computation environment;
determining whether the number of containers exceeds a threshold number of containers;
terminating the executing of the container after a first period of time has elapsed responsive to the number of containers not exceeding the threshold number of containers; and
terminating the executing of the container after a second period of time has elapsed responsive to the number of containers exceeding the threshold number of containers, wherein the second period of time is less than the first period of time.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the first period of time is associated with a watchdog timer, wherein the watchdog timer corresponds to a maximum amount of time for the secure computation environment to execute the container.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , the operations further comprising:
determining that the container is associated with a preemption privilege by verifying a cryptographic signature of the container during execution of the container; and
adding an amount of time to the first period of time or the second period of time responsive to a determination of the container being associated with the preemption privilege.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 , wherein determining whether the container

Assignees

• Cryptography Res Inc

Inventors

• Kumar Ambuj
• Rawlings William Craig
• Perez Ronald
• Pochuev Denis Alexandrovich
• Hamburg Michael Alexander
• Kocher Paul

Classifications

• G06F21/57

  Certifying or maintaining trusted computer platforms, e.g. secure boots or power-downs, version controls, system software checks, secure updates or assessing vulnerabilities · CPC title

• G06F21/44

  Program or device authentication · CPC title

• G06F21/52 Primary

  during program execution, e.g. stack integrity {; Preventing unwanted data erasure; Buffer overflow} · CPC title

• G06F9/4418

  Suspend and resume; Hibernate and awake · CPC title

• G06F21/602

  Providing cryptographic facilities or services · CPC title