Application deployment and monitoring in a cloud environment to satisfy integrity and geo-fencing constraints

• US 10,228,924 B2
• Filed: 04/19/2016
• Issued: 03/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Berger, Stefan, Goldman, Kenneth A., Kofkin-Hansen, Simon J., Lei, Hui, Naik, Vijay K., Pendarakis, Dimitrios, Radhakrishnan, Jayaram Kallapalayam, Safford, David R., Tao, Shu
• Primary Examiner(s): Louie, Jue
• Application Number:
  US15/132,321
• Publication Number:
  US 20170300309A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,057 Days
• Field of Search: 717100-178, 709200-253
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45587 Isolation or security of virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/57 Certifying or maintaining trusted computer platforms, e.g. secure boots or power-downs, version controls, system software checks, secure updates or assessing vulnerabilities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2111 Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/107 wherein the security policies are location-dependent, e.g. entities privileges depend on current location or allowing specific operations only from locally connected terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences

Abstract

Examples of techniques for deploying an application on a cloud environment satisfying integrity and geo-fencing constraints are disclosed herein. A computer implemented method may include: receiving a guest application for deployment on a cloud environment; receiving the integrity constraints on the integrity of each of the plurality of host where the application is to be deployed; receiving geo-fencing constraints identifying a geographic location where the guest application is to be deployed; determining for which of the plurality of hosts the integrity constraints and the geo-fencing constraints are satisfied; and deploying the guest application on at least one of the plurality of hosts that satisfy the integrity constraints and the geo-fencing constraints.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for deploying an application on a cloud environment satisfying integrity and geo-fencing constraints, the method comprising:

receiving a guest application for deployment on a cloud environment;

receiving the integrity constraints on the integrity of each of a plurality of hosts where the application is to be deployed;

receiving geo-fencing constraints identifying a geographic location where the guest application is to be deployed;

verifying integrity of at least one of the plurality of hosts based at least in part on the integrity constraints by receiving a checksum from a trusted platform module (TPM) and a virtual TPM for each of the plurality of hosts, decrypting the checksum, verifying the checksum by comparing the decrypted checksum against a checksum received from a digital signature associated with the guest application, and certifying results of the comparison of the decrypted checksum against a checksum received from the digital signature associated with the guest application by signing the results with a private key;

determining for which of the plurality of hosts the integrity constraints and the geo-fencing constraints are satisfied;

deploying the guest application on at least one of the plurality of hosts that satisfy the integrity constraints and the geo-fencing constraints, the guest application being specified as a workload pattern of virtual machines and interconnections between them;

performing monitoring of a deployed workload pattern at execution time to mitigate against integrity modifications;

detecting an integrity violation of the deployed workload pattern; and

responsive to detecting the integrity violation, initiating a corrective action, the corrective action comprising destroying the deployed workload pattern on the at least one of the plurality of hosts to which the workload pattern was deployed and redeploying the workload pattern to another of the plurality of hosts that satisfy the integrity constraints and the geo-fencing constraints.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing evidence of compliance with the integrity constraints and the geo-fencing constraints to an attestation service and policy enforcement service which attest the compliance of at least one of the plurality of hosts on which the guest application was deployed in the cloud environment.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

preventing initial deployment of the guest application when at least one of the integrity constraints and the geo-fencing constraints are not satisfied; and

sending a notification that the at least one of the integrity constraints and the geo-fencing constraints are not satisfied.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

specifying the guest application as a workload pattern of Linux containers and interconnections between the Linux containers.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the integrity constraints and the geo-fencing constraints are combined with a plurality of deployment constraints on the deployment of the workload pattern in a hybrid cloud environment.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the corrective action further comprises destroying the guest application deployment.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the corrective action is initiated responsive to a change to a geo-location of the at least one of the plurality of hosts.

8. A system for deploying an application on a cloud environment satisfying integrity and geo-fencing constraints, the system comprising:

a processor in communication with one or more types of memory, the processor configured to;

receive a guest application for deployment on a cloud environment;

receive the integrity constraints on the integrity of each of the plurality of host where the application is to be deployed;

receive geo-fencing constraints identifying a geographic location where the guest application is to be deployed;

verify integrity of at least one of the plurality of hosts based at least in part on the integrity constraints by receiving a checksum from a trusted platform module (TPM) and a virtual TPM for each of the plurality of hosts, decrypting the checksum, verifying the checksum by comparing the decrypted checksum against a checksum received from a digital signature associated with the guest application, and certifying results of the comparison of the decrypted checksum against a checksum received from the digital signature associated with the guest application by signing the results with a private key;

determine for which of the plurality of hosts the integrity constraints and the geo-fencing constraints are satisfied;

deploy the guest application on at least one of the plurality of hosts that satisfy the integrity constraints and the geo-fencing constraints, the guest application being specified as a workload pattern of virtual machines and interconnections between them;

perform monitoring of a deployed workload pattern at execution time to mitigate against integrity modifications;

detect an integrity violation of the deployed workload pattern; and

responsive to detecting the integrity violation, initiate a corrective action, the corrective action comprising destroying the deployed workload pattern on the at least one of the plurality of hosts to which the workload pattern was deployed and redeploying the workload pattern to another of the plurality of hosts that satisfy the integrity constraints and the geo-fencing constraints.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to:

provide evidence of compliance with the integrity constraints and the geo-fencing constraints to an attestation service and policy enforcement service which attest the compliance of at least one of the plurality of hosts on which the guest application was deployed in the cloud environment.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to:

prevent initial deployment of the guest application when at least one of the integrity constraints and the geo-fencing constraints are not satisfied; and

sending a notification that the at least one of the integrity constraints and the geo-fencing constraints are not satisfied.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to:

specify the guest application as a workload pattern of Linux containers and interconnections between the Linux containers.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the integrity constraints and the geo-fencing constraints are combined with a plurality of deployment constraints on the deployment of the workload pattern in a hybrid cloud environment.