Cloud virtual machine lifecycle security framework based on trusted computing

Abstract

As a foundation component of cloud computing platforms, Virtual Machines (VMs) are confronted with numerous security threats. However, existing solutions tend to focus on solving threats in a specific state of the VM. In this paper, we propose a novel VM lifecycle security protection framework based on trusted computing to solve the security threats to VMs throughout their entire lifecycle. Specifically, a concept of the VM lifecycle is presented divided up by the different active conditions of the VM. Then, a trusted computing based security protection framework is developed, which can extend the trusted relationship from trusted platform module to the VM and protect the security and reliability of the VM throughout its lifecycle. The theoretical analysis shows that our proposed framework can provide comprehensive safety to VM in all of its states. Furthermore, experiment results demonstrate that the proposed framework is feasible and achieves a higher level of security compared with some state-of-the-art schemes.