Distributing and verifying authenticity of virtual macahine images and virtual machine image reposiroty using digital signature based on signing policy

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9396006-B2
Application number	US-201213651266-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 12, 2012
Priority date	Oct 1, 2012
Publication date	Jul 19, 2016
Grant date	Jul 19, 2016

Abstract

A computer implemented method distributes a virtual machine image. A request for a virtual machine image is received. Responsive to receiving the request or the virtual machine image, the authenticity of a virtual machine image catalog associated with the virtual machine image is identified. Responsive to identifying that the virtual machine image catalog is authentic, a first digital signature to be sent with the virtual machine image is determined. Responsive to determining the signature, the virtual machine image and the signature is sent.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for distributing and verifying authenticity of virtual machine images using digital signatures, the computer-implemented method comprising:
dividing, by a computer, a virtual machine image into a plurality of chunks based on operating system pages of the virtual machine image;
representing, by the computer, the plurality of chunks of the virtual machine image as a graph, each chunk of the plurality of chunks is represented as a node in the graph and an edge between two nodes in the graph represents a dependency between two chunks represented by the two nodes;
signing, by the computer, the graph representing the plurality of chunks of the virtual machine image with a first digital signature;
receiving, by the computer, a request for the virtual machine image from a client hypervisor;
responsive to receiving the request for the virtual machine image, identifying, by the computer, whether a virtual machine image repository is authentic, wherein the virtual machine image repository contains the virtual machine image;
responsive to identifying that the virtual machine image repository is authentic, determining, by the computer, a particular type of the first digital signature to send with the virtual machine image based on a signing policy that includes one or more rules used to determine a specific signing scheme; and
responsive to determining the particular type of the first digital signature to send with the virtual machine image, sending, by the computer, the virtual machine image and the first digital signature of that particular type to the client hypervisor that provisions a virtual machine to execute using the virtual machine image.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the virtual machine image repository is identified as authentic by verifying a second digital signature that corresponds to the virtual machine image repository.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , further comprising:
further responsive to identifying that the virtual machine repository is authentic, identifying, by the computer, whether the virtual machine image is authentic.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , wherein the virtual machine image is identified as authentic by verifying the first digital signature that corresponds to the graph representing the plurality of chunks of the virtual machine image.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the particular type of the first digital signature is selected from a group consisting of an existing digital signature of the graph representing the plurality of chunks of the virtual machine image, a redacted digital signature of the graph representing the plurality of chunks of the virtual machine image, an aggregated digital signature of the graph representing the plurality of chunks of the virtual machine image, and a sanitized digital signature of the graph representing the plurality of chunks of the virtual machine image.

6. A computer program product for distributing and verifying authenticity of virtual machine images using digital signatures, the computer program product comprising a computer readable hardware storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a computer to cause the computer to:
divide, by the computer, a virtual machine image into a plurality of chunks based on operating system pages of the virtual machine image;
represent, by the computer, the plurality of chunks of the virtual machine image as a graph, each chunk of the plurality of chunks is represented as a node in the graph and an edge between two nodes in the graph represents a dependency between two chunks represented by the two nodes;
sign, by the computer, the graph representing the plurality of chunks of the virtual machine image with a first digital signature;
receive, by the computer, a request for the virtual machine image from a client hypervisor;
identify, by the computer, whether a virtual machine image repository is authentic in response to receiving the request for the virtual machine image, wherein the virtual machine image repository contains the virtual machine image;
determine, by the computer, a particular type of the first digital signature to send with the virtual machine image based on a signing policy that includes one or more rules used to determine a specific signing scheme in response to identifying that the virtual machine image repository is authentic; and
send, by the computer, the virtual machine image and the first digital signature of that particular type to the client hypervisor that provisions a virtual machine to execute using the virtual machine image in response to determining the particular type of the first digital signature to send with the virtual machine image.

7. The computer program product of claim 6 , wherein the virtual machine image repository image is identified as authentic by verifying a second digital signature that corresponds to the virtual machine image repository.

8. The computer program product of claim 7 , further comprising:
identify, by the computer, whether the virtual machine image is authentic in further response to identifying that the virtual machine repository is authentic.

9. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the virtual machine image is identified as authentic by verifying the first digital signature that corresponds to the graph representing the plurality of chunks of the virtual machine image.

10. The computer program product of claim 6 , wherein the particular type of the first digital signature is selected from a group consisting of an existing digital signature of the graph representing the plurality of chunks of the virtual machine image, a redacted digital signature of the graph representing the plurality of chunks of the virtual machine image, an aggregated digital signature of the graph representing the plurality of chunks of the virtual machine image, and a sanitized digital signature of the graph representing the plurality of chunks of the virtual machine image.

11. A computer for distributing and verifying authenticity of virtual machine images using digital signatures, the computer comprising:
a bus;
a hardware storage device connected to the bus, wherein the hardware storage device stores program instructions; and
a processor connected to the bus, wherein the processor executes the program instructions to:
divide a virtual machine image into a plurality of chunks based on operating system pages of the virtual machine image;
represent the plurality of chunks of the virtual machine image as a graph, each chunk of the plurality of chunks is represented as a node in the graph and an edge between two nodes in the graph represents a dependency between two chunks represented by the two nodes;
sign the graph representing the plurality of chunks of the virtual machine image with a first digital signature;
receive a request for the virtual machine image from a client hypervisor;
identify whether a virtual machine image repository is authentic in response to receiving the request for the virtual machine image, wherein the virtual machine image repository contains the virtual machine image;
determine a particular type of the first digital signature to send with the virtual machine image based on a signing policy that includes one or more rules used to determine a specific signing scheme in response to identifying that the virtual machine image repository is authentic; and
send the virtual machine image and the first digital signature of that particular type to the client hypervisor that provisions a virtual machine to execute using the virtu

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Kundu Ashish
• Mohindra Ajay

Classifications

• G06F9/455 Primary

  Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines · CPC title

• 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

• G06F2009/45587

  Isolation or security of virtual machine instances · CPC title

• G06F2009/4557

  Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing · CPC title

• G06F21/00

  Security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity · CPC title