Brief introduction to trusted virtual clients

1. Introduction to Trusted
Virtual Client
Gustavo de Paula – gep@cesar.org.br /
gustavo.eliano@gmail.com

2. Why we are here
• Computer Virus are a big problem is the
computer industry (REF1, REF2)
– Approximately 700K virus identified in 2008
– Approximately 30% of the computers were infected
with a computer virus
– Costs of 55 billion dollars a year in US
• It would be great to let my son use my work
laptop without worrying that something would
just break!

3. How a Computer Virus Work
• Different types of virus
exists
• Compromise operating
system or some specific
application Hardware
Operating system
Applications
Virus
• Biggest problem is on the operating system infection
• Once the OS is infected, the whole computer will be
affected

4. Is there a light at the of the tunnel?
Yes!!! Virtualization

5. What is Virtualization?
• Layer between the user
OS and the hardware
• User OS can be infected
but not the virtualization
layer
• Hardware is protected
Source: http://www.cornerstone.it/solutions_server.php

6. Is virtualization the answer to all
problems?
No 
Hardware
Virtualization Layer
OS 1 OS 2
App
1.1
App
1.2
App
2.1
App
2.2
• Pros.: each VM is isolated
• Infection in one VM will not
affect the other VMs
• Cons.: Infected VM might
compromise important App data

7. How can we check if the software
components installed in a computer
were not infected?

8. • Not-for-profit organization
• Develop, define and
promote industry standards
for trusted computing
building blocks
Trusted
Computing • Computer always behave as
expected
• Allow an external entity to
remotely verify that only
authorized code is executed
• Remote Device
Attestation

9. Remote Device Attestation
• Everything starts with a TPM (Trusted Platform Module)
• TPM is used to measure all software components
• If the software components was changed its measure will be
different

10. Remote Device Attestation
• Challenger can
request an attestation
• Attestator generates
its measures and
send to challenger
• Challenger can
validate if the
measurements are
correct

11. And what about Trusted Virtual
Client???

12. TVC
Virtualization
Trusted
Computing
• Combine Virtualization and TCG technologies
• Make sure all VMs work as expected
• Allow that security policies are configured
outside each VM and are enforced by the
virtualization layer

13. Hardware
Virtualization Layer (OS)
Work VM Personal VM Network Storage Management
• Virtualization Layer
is executed on boot
• Management VM is
the main controller
• Other VMs are
started from the
management VM
• All hardware access
goes through the
virtualization layer
– Access policies
controlled

14. Access Control Defined & Enforced in
Virtualization Layer
• Runtime == Virtualization Layer
• Same approach of used by VMs
(Java, .NET)
• Each App is associated to a
access policy
• Runtime enforce policies
• Apps have NO direct access to
access control policies

15. Current TVC Status
• Virtualization is widely used in the server side
– Still starting in the client side
• There are already a lot of prototypes out there
– Citrix
– Qubes
• Most of them are based on Xen virtualization
layer
• TVC is a strong research topic in companies such
as IBM, HP and Oracle

16. Where to get more information
• Trusted Computing Group
• Xen
• Citrix Xen Client
• Trusted Computing: TCG proposals
• OpenTC Prototype
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_virus
• http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article37
21556.ece
• http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/749071.html
• Trusted Virtual Platforms: A Key Enabler for Converged Client Devices,
Chris I Dalton, David Plaquin, Wolfgang Weidner, Dirk Kuhlmann, Boris
Balacheff, Richard Brown. HP Laboratories, Filton Road, Bristol

17. Thanks!