End-to end protection for shrouded virtual servers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9998459-B2
Application number	US-201715816220-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 17, 2017
Priority date	Dec 14, 2015
Publication date	Jun 12, 2018
Grant date	Jun 12, 2018

Abstract

Technical solutions are described for securely deploying a shrouded virtual server. An example method includes sending, by a host manager, authentication information of a hosting system to a client device in response to a request from the client device. The \method also includes receiving a request to deploy a virtual server using a shrouded mode. The method also includes deploying a preconfigured hypervisor on the hosting system, where the preconfigured hypervisor is deployed in an immutable mode that disables changes to security settings of the preconfigured hypervisor. The method also includes deploying, by the preconfigured hypervisor, a preconfigured boot image as an instance of the virtual server on the preconfigured hypervisor. The method also includes sending, by the host manager, an identifier of the virtual server for receipt by the client device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer implemented method for securely deploying a shrouded virtual server, the method comprising:
receiving, by a host manager, a request to deploy a virtual server using a shrouded mode, the shrouded mode preventing an administrator of a hosting system from accessing data of the virtual server, the request being sent by a client device in response to the hosting system being authenticated by the client device;
deploying, by the host manager, a preconfigured hypervisor on the hosting system, wherein the preconfigured hypervisor is deployed in an immutable mode that disables changes to security settings of the preconfigured hypervisor;
deploying, by the preconfigured hypervisor, a preconfigured boot image as an instance of the virtual server on the preconfigured hypervisor;
storing, by the host manager, a memory address range corresponding to the virtual server;
encrypting, by the host manager, the data of the virtual server using a session key received from the client device;
configuring, by the host manager, the preconfigured hypervisor to disable access to cache lines of the virtual server;
in response to a system failure in the virtual server, clearing, by the host manager, the memory address range prior to storing a memory dump;
storing, by the host manager, a client device identifier corresponding to the client device in the virtual server;
validating, by the virtual server, a communication from the client device based on the client device identifier; and
validating, by the virtual server, a communication from an authorized end-user device based on the client device identifier.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Alexander Khary J
• Bacher Utz
• Buendgen Reinhard T
• Callaghan Patrick J
• Dayka John C
• Mathias Thomas B
• Muller K Paul
• O'Connor James A
• Rooney William J
• Schroeder Kurt N
• Spera Peter G
• Suto Tiberiu
• Swehla Sean
• Usenbinz Stefan
• Walters Craig R

Classifications

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F2009/45587

  Isolation or security of virtual machine instances · CPC title

• G06F2009/45595

  Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances · CPC title

• H04L63/0876 Primary

  based on the identity of the terminal or configuration, e.g. MAC address, hardware or software configuration or device fingerprint · CPC title

• H04L9/32

  including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system {or for message authentication, e.g. authorization, entity authentication, data integrity or data verification, non-repudiation, key authentication or verification of credentials} · CPC title