Management of integrity-enforced virtual applications

Abstract

The security of virtualization platforms can be improved by applying trusted computing mechanisms such as enforcing the integrity of the hypervisor. In this paper we build on a recently proposed platform that extends this trust on to applications and services. We describe a process that covers the fully integrity-enforcing life-cycle of a trusted virtual application. Our architecture allows applications the safe transition between trusted states, even in case of updates of the hypervisor. We also detail the technical realization in our prototype implementation. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.