Verifiable Confidential Computing
Eviden Enclave and Eviden VM are solutions to compute over data
- that keeps data encrypted at all times, even when in use
- and that can be remotely verified at any time, i.e., that a correct non-tampered application is currently running in encrypted memory.
In other words, these solutions ensure that you know what processes your data, and that the data is always encrypted.
Both of these solutions
- have low performance overhead compared to processing in clear text,
- do not require modifications to existing software,
- provide real-time remote verifiability of the hardware environment and the running software
- can run either on the cloud or on-premise.
- are remotely administered and verified using simple CLI tools provided by Eviden
- do not require external key management while in use
Security Models and Use Cases
The two solutions protect applications and data against malicious infrastructure providers (cloud administrators, third-party premises administrators, etc...) that can have physical access to the machine.
- Eviden Enclave is a solution that provides additional protection against the system administrator of the machine, i.e. someone with operating system level access. Eviden Enclave is a sealed secured environment best-suited for scenarios where the provider of the application code - or its parameters such as a neural network - wants to protect its intellectual property from the system administrator. This is typically the case of collaborative confidential computing scenarios where the code provider wants to deploy its code (or its parameters) on a system administered by a third party, such as the data provider.
- Eviden VM provides additional flexibility and performance and is appropriate for scenarios where the running code does not have to be protected against the system administrator. This is typically the migration of an on-premise application to the cloud, or the security upgrade of an on-premise application to allow it to process data with increased confidentiality.
| Solution | Infra. Admins (physical access) | Sys. Admins (OS access) | Use Cases |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eviden Enclave | No access to data or code | No access to data or code | Collaborative confidential computing, code protection |
| Eviden VM | No access to data or code | Access | Move to cloud, security upgrade of on-premise apps |
Note: it is possible to "seal" an Eviden VM by shutting down all operating system level access to the VM (such as the SSH daemon)
Eviden Enclave
Please check the dedicated documentation at Eviden Enclave
Eviden VM
Please check the dedicated documentation at Eviden VM
Summary Comparison of Eviden Enclave and Eviden VM
| Feature | Eviden Enclave | Eviden VM |
|---|---|---|
| Memory encryption | Yes | Yes |
| Remote verifiability | Yes | Yes |
| Remote code deployment | Yes (Python ASGI) | No |
| Offline encrypted code deployment | Yes | No |
| Protection against | Infra. Admins + Sys. Admins | Infra. Admins |
| Required hardware | Intel SGX | Intel TDX or AMD-SEV-SNP |
| Cloud providers availability | Azure, OVH | AWS, Azure, GCP, OVH |
| Applications type | Python, Singularity containers | Any application |
| Code modification | None | None |
| Performance overhead | ~+20% | ~+10% |
| Re-usability of OS images | No | Yes |
| Attack Surface | Small | Large |
These solutions are now available as IaaS on all the major cloud providers.