3 ms·

So the CSP has physical access to the CPU (and the rest of the hardware), is it possible to attest that it hasn't been tampered with after it leaves the CPU man

So the CSP has physical access to the CPU (and the rest of the hardware), is it possible to attest that it hasn't been tampered with after it leaves the CPU manufacturer's control? (I'm not saying that's it's in anyway easy to modify, but if our threat model here is a malicious company with the resources of AWS/Azure/GCP then it seems sensible to consider even difficult attacks)

m1ghtym0 4y ago
The thing you're looking for is called remote attestation. That means there is a direct channel from the hardware to the user that attests the confidentiality and integrity of the VM. Such attestation statement is signed by a key burned into the CPU at production time. The remaining attack vector is leaking that key from the hardware itself. There is academic research on this topic. In essence, while technically possible, it is considered not practical, especially not at scale.