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Erebor: A Drop-In Sandbox Solution for Private Data Processing in Untrusted Confidential Virtual Machines

  • Chuqi Zhang
  • , Rahul Priolkar
  • , Yuancheng Jiang
  • , Yuan Xiao
  • , Mona Vij
  • , Zhenkai Liang
  • , Adil Ahmad

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Confidential virtual machines (CVMs) are designed to protect data in cloud machines, but they fail in this task in common Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) cloud environments. In such settings, the software stack within a CVM, including service programs and the operating system, that receives and processes data may intentionally disclose it to attackers. We present Erebor, a sandboxing architecture for CVMs that processes client data in secure containers, where restrictions apply to both (a) access by all untrusted outside components and (b) the sandbox’s ability to communicate data through memory and software-controlled direct or covert exits. Erebor enables such restrictions through a security monitor design based on intra-kernel privilege isolation for CVM, fully compatible with emerging cloud deployments without requiring host modifications. Under realistic scenarios, such as large language model inference and private information retrieval, Erebor only adds a performance overhead of 4.5%-13.2%, demonstrating its practicality in terms of enabling strong data sandboxing in modern cloud machines.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationEuroSys 2025 - Proceedings of the 2025 20th European Conference on Computer Systems
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages1210-1228
Number of pages19
ISBN (Electronic)9798400711961
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 30 2025
Event20th European Conference on Computer Systems, EuroSys 2025, co-located 30th ACM International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems, ASPLOS 2025 - Rotterdam, Netherlands
Duration: Mar 30 2025Apr 3 2025

Publication series

NameEuroSys 2025 - Proceedings of the 2025 20th European Conference on Computer Systems

Conference

Conference20th European Conference on Computer Systems, EuroSys 2025, co-located 30th ACM International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems, ASPLOS 2025
Country/TerritoryNetherlands
CityRotterdam
Period3/30/254/3/25

Keywords

  • CVM
  • OS Design
  • Sandboxed Container

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Hardware and Architecture
  • Control and Systems Engineering

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