Safeguarding VNF Credentials with Intel SGX

Operators use containers – enabled by operating system (OS) level virtualization – to deploy virtual network functions (VNFs) that access the centralized network controller in software-defined net- working (SDN) deployments. While SDN allows flexible network configuration, it also increases the attack surface on the network deployment [8]. For example, insecure communication channels may be tapped to extract or inject sensitive data transferred on the north-bound interface, between the network controller and VNFs; furthermore, to protect the network controller from malicious VNF instances, the integrity and authenticity of VNFs must be verified prior to deployment.o mitigate the risks described above, we implemented a prototype that leverages hardware-based mechanisms for isolated execution implemented by Intel SGX in combination with a run-time integrity measurement subsystem, namely Linux Integrity Measure- ment Architecture (IMA)1. This prototype is a first step towards providing to tenants and end-users integrity guarantees regarding the network components in SDN deployments