EnclaveDB: A Secure Database Using SGX

TLDR

EnclaveDB is a database engine that guarantees confidentiality, integrity, and freshness for data and queries. EnclaveDB places tables, indexes, and metadata inside Intel SGX enclaves, using a small trusted computing base comprising an in‑memory storage and query engine, a transaction manager, and pre‑compiled stored procedures, and employs an efficient protocol that checks log integrity and freshness while allowing concurrent, asynchronous appends and truncations with minimal thread synchronization. Experiments with standard benchmarks and a performance model show EnclaveDB achieves strong security with low overhead (up to 40 % for TPC‑C) compared to an industry‑strength in‑memory database engine.

Abstract

We propose EnclaveDB, a database engine that guarantees confidentiality, integrity, and freshness for data and queries. EnclaveDB guarantees these properties even when the database administrator is malicious, when an attacker has compromised the operating system or the hypervisor, and when the database runs in an untrusted host in the cloud. EnclaveDB achieves this by placing sensitive data (tables, indexes and other metadata) in enclaves protected by trusted hardware (such as Intel SGX). EnclaveDB has a small trusted computing base, which includes an in-memory storage and query engine, a transaction manager and pre-compiled stored procedures. A key component of EnclaveDB is an efficient protocol for checking integrity and freshness of the database log. The protocol supports concurrent, asynchronous appends and truncation, and requires minimal synchronization between threads. Our experiments using standard database benchmarks and a performance model that simulates large enclaves show that EnclaveDB achieves strong security with low overhead (up to 40% for TPC-C) compared to an industry strength in-memory database engine.