Virtual machine monitor providing secure cryptographic operations

Abstract

Computer systems and methods are disclosed to implement a virtual machine monitor (VMM) that stores cryptographic keys for guest virtual machines (VMs) and securely executes cryptographic operations on the VMs' behalf using the stored cryptographic keys. The cryptographic keys are maintained in a key store that is accessible to the VMM but not accessible to the guest VMs. The cryptographic operations are executed in a manner that does not reveal the cryptographic keys to the guest VMs. In embodiments, the guest VMs may invoke the cryptographic operations via a device driver, a memory access interface, or some other mechanism. Advantageously, the guest VMs cannot obtain the cryptographic keys in their own memory space, so that the keys cannot be exfiltrated from the guest VMs. Embodiments of the VMM may be used to implement cryptographic operations such as request signing and verification, data encryption and decryption, and others.