Techniques for attesting data processing systems

• US 9,250,951 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2013
• Issued: 02/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Haikney, David, Mackintosh, David Nigel, Perez, Jose Juan Palacios
• Primary Examiner(s): Siddiqi, Mohammad A
• Application Number:
  US14/042,267
• Publication Number:
  US 20140033210A1
• Time in Patent Office: 855 Days
• Field of Search: 718/1, 718/100, 718/101, 713/1, 726/22
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 9/46 Multiprogramming arrangements

Abstract

A technique for attesting a plurality of data processing systems includes generating a logical grouping for a data processing system. The logical grouping is associated with a rule that describes a condition that must be met in order for the data processing system to be considered trusted. A list of one or more children associated with the logical grouping is retrieved. The one or more children are attested to determine whether each of the one or more children is trusted. In response to the attesting, the rule is applied to determine whether the condition has been met in order for the data processing system to be considered trusted. A plurality of logical groupings is associated to determine whether an associated plurality of data processing systems can be considered trusted.

Claims

1. A method for attesting a plurality of data processing systems included in a datacenter, comprising:

generating, by a managing data processing system, respective logical groupings for each of the data processing systems, wherein the logical groupings are associated with a rule that describes a condition that must be met in order for the data processing systems to be considered trusted, and wherein the datacenter includes a plurality of machine pools each of which includes two or more of the data processing systems, where each of the plurality of data processing systems includes a plurality of virtual machines each of which has an associated platform configuration register (PCR) that stores a measurement value;

retrieving, by the managing data processing system, a list of one or more children associated with each of the logical groupings;

attesting, by the managing data processing system, the one or more children to determine whether each of the one or more children is trusted, wherein the attesting includes comparing the measurement value to an expected attestation value; and

subsequent to the attesting, applying, by the managing data processing system, the rule to determine whether the condition has been met in order for the data processing systems to be considered trusted, wherein based on the rule a first one of the logical groupings is deemed trusted when all of the children of the first one of the logical groupings have a same untrusted state and a same trusted state, and wherein a child is associated with a PCR or a further logical grouping and when the child is associated with the further logical grouping the retrieving is repeated until another child associated with the PCR is found.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the logical groupings are associated with at least one of a physical hierarchy and a functional dependency.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the attesting further comprises determining either a trusted state or an untrusted state for a PCR in accordance with the expected attestation value or a trusted value.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein data associated with the logical groupings is maintained on the managing data processing system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the data processing systems represent a managed system.