Complex hypervisor software helps run cloud computers, but verifying its security is often thought to be nigh impossible. Now computer scientists at C

SeKVM Makes Cloud Computing Provably Secure

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2021-06-08 12:30:16

Complex hypervisor software helps run cloud computers, but verifying its security is often thought to be nigh impossible. Now computer scientists at Columbia University have developed what they say is the first hypervisor that can guarantee secure cloud computing.

Hypervisors organize cloud servers into virtual machines to supply data and computing power over the Internet. Hacks that successfully exploit hypervisor vulnerabilities could gain unfettered access to the data of millions of customers of cloud computing providers such as Amazon.

"All it takes is a single weak link in the code — one that is virtually impossible to detect via traditional testing — to leave a system vulnerable to hackers," says Ronghui Gu, a computer scientist at Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science and co-author on the researchers’ published study about the work.

In theory, scientists can formally verify software to mathematically prove that its code "protects data security under 100% of circumstances," Gu says. However, most verified hypervisors are often far simpler than their commercial counterparts, since they are specifically designed for verification instead of practical applications. In contrast, modern commercial hypervisors are huge pieces of software, often including an entire operating system kernel, which can make verifying them a seemingly insurmountable task.

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