System and method for security health monitoring and attestation of virtual machines in cloud computing systems

1. A cloud server for security health monitoring and attestation of virtual machines in cloud computing systems, comprising:

a virtual machine, a hypervisor, a plurality of network interface controllers, a plurality of random access memories, and a plurality of processing units; and

a monitor module for monitoring and gathering security measurement information; and

a trust module for: (i) secure storage of the security measurement information in a trusted memory of the trust module, (ii) generating keys, and (iii) hashing and signing the security measurement information using cryptography operations,

wherein the cloud server transmits hashed and signed security measurement information to an attestation server in communication with the cloud server, the attestation server: (i) processing the hashed and signed security measurement information to determine a security property of the virtual machine executing on the cloud server, and (ii) maintaining hashed and signed security property information corresponding to a plurality of virtual machines executing on different cloud servers.

2. The cloud server of claim 1 , wherein the monitor module includes a tool located in the hypervisor of the cloud server for detecting and analyzing security vulnerabilities inside the virtual machine.

3. The cloud server of claim 1 , wherein the monitor module includes a tool located in the hypervisor of the cloud server for detecting and analyzing security vulnerabilities outside the virtual machine.

4. The cloud server of claim 1 , wherein the monitor module collects resource usage measurements for constructing empirical probability distributions.

5. The cloud server of claim 1 , further comprising a module for gathering security measurement information from at least one of the following: the virtual machine running on the cloud server, a plurality of virtual machines running on the cloud server, and a plurality of virtual machines running on a plurality of cloud servers.

6. The cloud server of claim 1 , further comprising of a plurality of trust evidence registers assessable by only the monitor module and the trust module.

7. The cloud server of claim 1 further comprising at least one long term public- private cryptography key-pair that uniquely identifies the server.

8. The cloud server of claim 7 , wherein a new session specific cryptography key pair is created by the trust module whenever an attestation report is needed for the virtual machine.

9. The cloud server of claim 8 , wherein the trust module generates accumulated cryptography hashes for each software module that is loaded into the server.

10. A method for maintaining security of virtual machines in cloud computing systems, comprising the steps of:

providing at a cloud server a virtual machine, a hypervisor, a plurality of network interface controllers, a plurality of random access memories, and a plurality of processing units; and

providing a monitor module for monitoring and gathering security measurement information and a trust module for: (i) securely storing the security measurement information, in a trusted memory of the trust module, (ii) generating keys, and (iii) hashing and signing the security measurement information using cryptography operations,

wherein the cloud server transmits hashed and signed security measurement information to an attestation server in communication with the cloud server, the attestation server: (i) processing the hashed and signed security measurement information to determine a security property of the virtual machine executing on the cloud server, and (ii) maintaining hashed and signed security property information corresponding to a plurality of virtual machines executing on different cloud servers.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of providing a tool in the monitor module located in the hypervisor of the cloud server for detecting and analyzing security vulnerabilities inside the virtual machine.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of providing a tool in the monitor module located in the hypervisor of the cloud server for detecting and analyzing security vulnerabilities outside the virtual machine.

13. The method of claim 10 , further comprising the step of collecting resource usage measurements for constructing empirical probability distributions.

14. The method of claim 10 , further comprising the step of gathering security measurement information from at least one of the following: the virtual machine running on the cloud server, a plurality of virtual machines running on the cloud server, and a plurality of virtual machines running on a plurality of cloud servers.

15. The method of claim 10 , further comprising the step of providing a plurality of trust evidence registers assessable by only the monitor module and the trust module.

16. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of providing at least one long term public-private cryptography key-pair that uniquely identifies the server.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising the step of creating a new session specific cryptography key pair by the trust module whenever an attestation report is needed for the virtual machine.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising the step of generating accumulated cryptography hashes by the trust module for each software module that is loaded into the server.

19. A system for security health monitoring and attestation of virtual machines in cloud computing systems, comprising:

a cloud server including a virtual machine, a hypervisor, a network interface controller, a random access memory, and a processing unit;

a monitor module for monitoring and gathering security measurement information inside the virtual machine or outside the virtual machine;

a trust module for: (i) secure storage of security measurement information, in a trusted memory of the trust module, (ii) generating keys, and (iii) hashing and signing the security measurement information using cryptography operations,

wherein the cloud server transmits hashed and signed security measurement information to an attestation server in communication with the cloud server, the attestation server: (i) processing the hashed and signed security measurement information to determine a security property of the virtual machine executing on the cloud server, and (ii) maintaining hashed and signed security property information corresponding to a plurality of virtual machines executing on different cloud servers; and

a property interpretation module for interpreting the security measurement information hashed and signed from the trust module or from the monitor module.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the monitor module collects resource usage measurements for constructing empirical probability distributions.

21. The system of claim 20 , further comprising a module for gathering security measurement information from at least one of the following: the virtual machine running on the system, a plurality of virtual machines running on the system, and a plurality of virtual machines running on a plurality of systems.

22. The system of claim 19 , further comprising of a plurality of trust evidence registers assessable by only the monitor module, the trust module and the property interpretation module.

23. The system of claim 22 , further comprising at least one long term public- private cryptography key-pair that uniquely identifies the system.

24. The system of claim 23 , wherein a new session specific cryptography key pair is created by the trust module whenever an attestation report is needed for the virtual machine.

25. The system of claim 24 , wherein the trust module generates accumulated cryptography hashes for each software module that is loaded into the system.