Systems and methods for securely provisioning the geographic location of physical infrastructure elements in cloud computing environments

• US 9,960,921 B2
• Filed: 02/24/2017
• Issued: 05/01/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: VIRTUSTREAM IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VIRTUSTREAM IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Leighton, Gregsie, Lubsey, Vincent George, Reid, Kevin
• Primary Examiner(s): Abrishamkar, Kaveh
• Application Number:
  US15/441,841
• Publication Number:
  US 20170170970A1
• Time in Patent Office: 431 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45587 Isolation or security of virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/64 Protecting data integrity, e.g. using checksums, certificates or signatures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/83 input devices, e.g. keyboards, mice or controllers thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/24 Key scheduling, i.e. generating round keys or sub-keys for block encryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0876 based on the identity of the terminal or configuration, e.g. MAC address, hardware or software configuration or device fingerprint
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/123 received data contents, e.g. message integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0872 using geo-location information, e.g. location data, time, relative position or proximity to other entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0897 involving additional devices, e.g. trusted platform module [TPM], smartcard or USB
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/104 Location integrity, e.g. secure geotagging
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

Systems and methods relating to improved security in cloud computing environments are disclosed. According to one illustrative implementation, a method for provisioning physical geographic location of a physical infrastructure device associated with a hypervisor host is provided. Further, the method may include performing processing to obtain initial geo location data of the device, determining verified geo location data of the device by performing validation, via an attestation service component, of the initial geo location data to provide verified geo location data, and writing the verified geo location data into HSM or TPM space of the hypervisor host.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

obtaining a geographic acquisition code, the geographic acquisition code being valid for a predefined period of time;

sending a request for initial geographic location data of a physical infrastructure device to a geographic data acquisition component, the request comprising the geographic acquisition code;

receiving initial geographic location data of the physical infrastructure device from the geographic data acquisition component, the initial geographic location data being signed utilizing a key of the geographic data acquisition component;

verifying geographic location data of the physical infrastructure device by validating the signature of the initial geographic location data;

writing the verified geographic location data to a hardware security module of a hypervisor host implemented by the physical infrastructure device; and

managing a virtual environment associated with the hypervisor host in accordance with a geofencing policy utilizing the verified geographic location data written to the hardware security module of the hypervisor host, the geofencing policy specifying one or more approved geographic locations where different virtual machines are permitted to at least one of launch and perform computing operations.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the geographic data acquisition component comprises a mobile device separate from the physical infrastructure device.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the physical infrastructure device provides the geographic acquisition code to the mobile device in conjunction with the request for the initial geographic location data.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein verifying the geographic location data of the physical infrastructure device comprises:

obtaining a current time from a time source; and

verifying that time data in the initial geographic location data is within a designated threshold of the current time.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the time source comprises one or more attestation service components implemented using the physical infrastructure device.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the hardware security module comprises a trusted platform module.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the verified geographic location data is written to a platform configuration register (PCR) of the trusted platform module.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein managing the virtual environment comprises, in connection with a migration of a computing workload associated with a given virtual machine to a target geographic location comprising the physical infrastructure device:

checking whether the verified geographic location data written to the hardware security module of the hypervisor host for the physical infrastructure device matches at least one of the approved geographic locations for the given virtual machine.

9. A system comprising:

a physical infrastructure device implementing a hypervisor host;

the physical infrastructure device being configured;

to obtain a geographic acquisition code, the geographic acquisition code being valid for a predefined period of time;

to send a request for initial geographic location data of the physical infrastructure device to a geographic data acquisition component, the request comprising the geographic acquisition code;

to receive initial geographic location data of the physical infrastructure device from the geographic data acquisition component, the initial geographic location data being signed utilizing a key of the geographic data acquisition component;

to verify geographic location data of the physical infrastructure device by validating the signature of the initial geographic location data;

to write the verified geographic location data to a hardware security module of the hypervisor host; and

to manage a virtual environment associated with the hypervisor host in accordance with a geofencing policy utilizing the verified geographic location data written to the hardware security module of the hypervisor host, the geofencing policy specifying one or more approved geographic locations where different virtual machines are permitted to at least one of launch and perform computing operations.

10. The system of claim 9 further comprising a mobile device, the mobile device implementing the geographic data acquisition component.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the physical infrastructure device is further configured to provide the geographic acquisition code to the mobile device in conjunction with the request for the initial geographic location data.

12. The system of claim 9 wherein verifying the geographic location data of the physical infrastructure device comprises:

obtaining a current time from a time source; and

verifying that time data in the initial geographic location data is within a designated threshold of the current time.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the time source comprises one or more attestation service components implemented using the physical infrastructure device.

14. The system of claim 9 wherein the hardware security module comprises a trusted platform module.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the trusted platform module comprises one or more platform configuration registers (PCRs), and wherein the physical infrastructure device is configured to write the verified geographic location data to one or more of the PCRs of the trusted platform module.

20. The system of claim 9 wherein managing the virtual environment comprises, in connection with a migration of a computing workload associated with a given virtual machine to a target geographic location comprising the physical infrastructure device:

checking whether the verified geographic location data written to the hardware security module of the hypervisor host for the physical infrastructure device matches at least one of the approved geographic locations for the given virtual machine.

16. A computer program product comprises a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored therein program code of one or more software programs, wherein the program code when executed causes a physical infrastructure device:

to obtain a geographic acquisition code, the geographic acquisition code being valid for a predefined period of time;

to send a request for initial geographic location data of the physical infrastructure device to a geographic data acquisition component, the request comprising the geographic acquisition code;

to receive initial geographic location data of the physical infrastructure device from the geographic data acquisition component, the initial geographic location data being signed utilizing a key of the geographic data acquisition component;

to verify geographic location data of the physical infrastructure device by validating the signature of the initial geographic location data;

to write the verified geographic location data to a hardware security module of a hypervisor host implemented by the physical infrastructure device; and

to manage a virtual environment associated with the hypervisor host in accordance with a geofencing policy utilizing the verified geographic location data written to the hardware security module of the hypervisor host, the geofencing policy specifying one or more approved geographic locations where different virtual machines are permitted to at least one of launch and perform computing operations.

17. The computer program product of claim 16 wherein managing the virtual environment comprises, in connection with a migration of a computing workload associated with a given virtual machine to a target geographic location comprising the physical infrastructure device:

checking whether the verified geographic location data written to the hardware security module of the hypervisor host for the physical infrastructure device matches at least one of the approved geographic locations for the given virtual machine.

18. The computer program product of claim 16 wherein the geographic data acquisition component comprises a mobile device separate from the physical infrastructure device.

19. The computer program product of claim 18 wherein the physical infrastructure device provides the geographic acquisition code to the mobile device in conjunction with the request for the initial geographic location data.