Trusted boot of a virtual machine

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9721103-B2
Application number	US-201313929334-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 27, 2013
Priority date	Jun 29, 2012
Publication date	Aug 1, 2017
Grant date	Aug 1, 2017

Abstract

A method, system and program product for performing a trusted boot of a virtual machine comprises the steps of executing, in turn, a series of components of the trusted boot, performing a function on each component prior to the execution of the respective component, storing the output of the functions in a virtual trusted platform module, detecting that the virtual trusted platform module has not responded to the storing of the output of a function in the virtual trusted platform module, and generating a request that the virtual trusted platform module be disabled.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system for performing a trusted boot of a virtual machine, the system comprising a server arranged to:
execute, in turn, a series of components of the trusted boot;
perform a function on each respective component of the series of components prior to the execution of the respective component when attempting to establish a chain of trust for the series of components;
store the output of the functions in a virtual trusted platform module;
detect that the virtual trusted platform module has not responded to the storing of the output of a function in the virtual trusted platform module;
generate a request that the virtual trusted platform module be disabled; and
transmit the generated request to a hypervisor and disable the virtual trusted platform module using a command from the hypervisor.

2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the system is arranged, when detecting that the virtual trusted platform module has not responded to the storing of the output of a function in the virtual trusted platform module, to wait for a predetermined time period.

3. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the system is arranged, when performing a function on each component prior to the execution of the respective component, to perform a predefined hashing function on the respective component.

4. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the system is arranged, when performing a function on each component prior to the execution of the respective component, to perform the function by the previously loaded component.

5. A computer program product comprising instructions stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage device that are operable for performing a trusted boot of a virtual machine, wherein the instructions are operable when executed by a processor for:
executing, in turn, a series of components of the trusted boot;
performing a function on each respective component of the series of components prior to the execution of the respective component when attempting to establish a chain of trust for the series of components;
storing the output of the functions in a virtual trusted platform module;
detecting that the virtual trusted platform module has not responded to the storing of the output of a function in the virtual trusted platform module;
generating a request that the virtual trusted platform module be disabled; and
transmitting the generated request to a hypervisor and disabling the virtual trusted platform module using a command from the hypervisor.

6. The computer program product according to claim 5 , wherein the instructions for detecting that the virtual trusted platform module has not responded to the storing of the output of a function in the virtual trusted platform module comprise instructions for waiting for a predetermined time period.

7. The computer program product according to claim 5 , wherein the instructions for performing a function on each component prior to the execution of the respective component comprise instructions for performing a predefined hashing function on the respective component.

8. The computer program product according to claim 5 , wherein the instructions for performing a function on each component prior to the execution of the respective component is performed by the previously loaded component.

9. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the server is arranged to generate the request responsive to detecting that the virtual trusted platform module has not responded to the storing of the output of a function in the virtual trusted platform module.

10. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the server is arranged to:
execute the hypervisor to supervise a plurality of logical, partitionable runtime environments within the server, reserve a logical partition for a hypervisor-based trusted platform module, and present the hypervisor-based trusted platform module to another logical partition as the virtual trusted platform module.

11. The computer program product according to claim 5 , wherein the request is generated responsive to detecting that the virtual trusted platform module has not responded to the storing of the output of a function in the virtual trusted platform module.

12. The computer program product according to claim 5 , wherein the instructions are operable when executed by the processor for:
executing the hypervisor to supervise a plurality of logical, partitionable runtime environments within the server, reserve a logical partition for a hypervisor-based trusted platform module, and present the hypervisor-based trusted platform module to another logical partition as the virtual trusted platform module.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Sherwood David
• Walker James W
• Walton Travis

Classifications

• G06F21/52

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

• G06F11/1484

  involving virtual machines · CPC title

• G06F2009/45591

  Monitoring or debugging support · CPC title

• G06F9/45558

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F9/4401

  Bootstrapping (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57) · CPC title