Enhancing Grid Security Using Trusted Virtualization

Abstract. Grid applications have increasingly sophisticated functional and security requirements. However, current techniques mostly protect only the resource provider from attacks by the user, while leaving the user comparatively dependent on the well-behavior of the resource provider. In this paper, we take the first steps towards addressing the trust asymmetry by using a combination of trusted computing and virtualization technologies. We present the key components for a trustworthy grid architecture and propose an implementation. By providing multilateral security, i.e., security for both the grid user and the grid provider, our architecture increases the confidence that can be placed on the correctness of a grid computation and on the protection of user-provided assets. To maintain important scalability and performance aspects, our proposal aims to minimize overhead. To this end, we also propose a scalable offline attestation protocol, which allows selection of partners in the ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: ATC
• Authors: Hans Löhr, HariGovind V. Ramasamy, Ahmad-Reza Sadeghi, Stefan Schulz, Matthias Schunter, Christian Stüble
• Keywords: Applied Computing, ATC 2007, Grid, Resource Provider, Trustworthy Grid Architecture