A security-improved scheme for virtual TPM based on KVM

Abstract

Virtual trusted platform module (vTPM) is an important part in building trusted cloud environment. Aiming at the remediation of lack of effective security assurances of vTPM instances in the existing virtual TPM architecture, this paper presents a security-improved scheme for virtual TPM based on kernel- based virtual machine (KVM). By realizing the TPM2.0 specification in hardware and software, we add protection for vTPM’s secrets using the asymmetric encryption algorithm of TPM. This scheme supports the safety migration of a TPM key during VM-vTPM migration and the security association for different virtual machines (VMs) with vTPM instances. We implement a virtual trusted platform with higher security based on KVM virtual infrastructure. The experiments show that the proposed scheme can enhance the security of virtual trusted platform and has fewer additional performance loss for the VM migration with vTPM.