Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Mark Andrew Cawston

Prashant Dewan

Reuben R Olinsky

Rebecca Leigh Holt

Andreea Mihaela Pintilie

Sudhanva Huruli

Kaloyan Aleksandro Aleksiev

Systems and methods are provided for implementing a cluster-wide root secret ('CWRS') key for distributed node clusters. In a multi-node cluster, a leader node has a leader node security system that generates the CWRS key, which is a common secret key for all workloads (e.g., containers or VMs) in the multi-node cluster. The leader node security system encrypts the generated CWRS key using a public key and/or a bootstrap key received from a non-leader node that requests the CWRS key. In examples, the leader node security system signs the encrypted CWRS key using its private key for subsequent verification, by the requesting non-leader node, that the CWRS key was generated by the leader node security system. The CWRS thus encrypted can be securely sent to the requesting non-leader node for subsequent encryption or decryption of secret data by the security system of the non-leader node.

Cluster-wide root secret key for distributed node clusters

This disclosure relates to building and finalizing an operating system (OS) image package in a way that allows for flexibility and customization of OS images while preventing certain runtime modifications after deployment of the OS image package on one or more target devices (e.g., embedded devices). For example, the systems described herein can build an OS image package based on information from an OS manifest that provides a declarative summary of a target OS. The systems described herein can further finalize the OS image package by performing one or more actions on the OS image package that prevent an end-user from performing various runtime modifications to the target OS after deployment of the OS image package. This finalization process provides an improved pipeline for implementing OS updates while providing safeguards against a variety of security risks associated with deploying OS image packages on a large scale.

Generating and distributing customized embedded operating systems

Growing community of inventors

King's Lynn, United Kingdom

Mark Andrew Cawston