Bridge the Future: High-Performance Networks in Confidential VMs without Trusted I/O devices

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Li, Mengyuan, Srivastava, Shashvat, Yan, Mengjia
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Li, Mengyuan
Srivastava, Shashvat
Yan, Mengjia
author_facet Li, Mengyuan
Srivastava, Shashvat
Yan, Mengjia
contents Trusted I/O (TIO) is an appealing solution to improve I/O performance for confidential VMs (CVMs), with the potential to eliminate broad sources of I/O overhead. However, this paper emphasizes that not all types of I/O can derive substantial benefits from TIO, particularly network I/O. Given the obligatory use of encryption protocols for network traffic in CVM's threat model, TIO's approach of I/O encryption over the PCIe bus becomes redundant. Furthermore, TIO solutions need to expand the Trusted Computing Base (TCB) to include TIO devices and are commercially unavailable. Motivated by these insights, the goal of this paper is to propose a software solution that helps CVMs immediately benefit from high-performance networks, while confining trust only to the on-chip CVM. We present FOLIO, a software solution crafted from a secure and efficient Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) extension compatible with the latest version of AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV), a.k.a., Secure Nested Paging (SNP). Our design is informed by a thorough analysis of all possible factors that impact SNP VM's network performance. By extensively removing overhead sources, we arrive at a design that approaches the efficiency of an optimal TIO-based configuration. Evaluation shows that FOLIO has a performance dip less than 6% relative to the optimal TIO configuration, while only relying on off-the-shelf CPUs.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_03360
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Bridge the Future: High-Performance Networks in Confidential VMs without Trusted I/O devices
Li, Mengyuan
Srivastava, Shashvat
Yan, Mengjia
Cryptography and Security
Trusted I/O (TIO) is an appealing solution to improve I/O performance for confidential VMs (CVMs), with the potential to eliminate broad sources of I/O overhead. However, this paper emphasizes that not all types of I/O can derive substantial benefits from TIO, particularly network I/O. Given the obligatory use of encryption protocols for network traffic in CVM's threat model, TIO's approach of I/O encryption over the PCIe bus becomes redundant. Furthermore, TIO solutions need to expand the Trusted Computing Base (TCB) to include TIO devices and are commercially unavailable. Motivated by these insights, the goal of this paper is to propose a software solution that helps CVMs immediately benefit from high-performance networks, while confining trust only to the on-chip CVM. We present FOLIO, a software solution crafted from a secure and efficient Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) extension compatible with the latest version of AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV), a.k.a., Secure Nested Paging (SNP). Our design is informed by a thorough analysis of all possible factors that impact SNP VM's network performance. By extensively removing overhead sources, we arrive at a design that approaches the efficiency of an optimal TIO-based configuration. Evaluation shows that FOLIO has a performance dip less than 6% relative to the optimal TIO configuration, while only relying on off-the-shelf CPUs.
title Bridge the Future: High-Performance Networks in Confidential VMs without Trusted I/O devices
topic Cryptography and Security
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.03360