Fortanix Integrates Confidential Containers with Attestation and Key Management

Confidential Containers Integration

Fortanix announced the integration of Confidential Containers (CoCo) into its Confidential AI platform. This integration establishes a connection between Kubernetes workload attestation and the release of encryption keys. The system ensures that only workloads that adhere to defined security policies can decrypt models and sensitive data within hardware-based trusted execution environments (TEEs).

Hardware-Based Protection for Workloads

Confidential Containers, a Cloud Native Computing Foundation project, runs Kubernetes pods inside confidential virtual machines. These VMs are backed by hardware-based TEEs, which encrypt memory and restrict access to the workload during execution. This method protects data in use, offering a higher level of security than traditional containers, whose isolation relies on the host operating system. This allows sensitive workloads to operate on shared infrastructure.

Attestation and Key Management Workflow

Fortanix's solution involves two services: Confidential Computing Manager (CCM) and Data Security Manager (DSM). CCM verifies the execution environment, including processor and GPU attestation. DSM then releases encryption keys only to environments that CCM has successfully verified. If attestation fails, keys remain in DSM, preventing the workload from decrypting protected data or models. This workflow moves image pulling and unpacking into the confidential guest, with CoCo's Attestation Agent collecting hardware evidence and its Confidential Data Hub obtaining secrets after verification.

Deployment and Configuration Details

Fortanix offers CCM and DSM as a hosted service, on-premises, or air-gapped, with clustered deployment and 24x7 support. The Intel TDX deployment guide from Fortanix outlines GPU settings, allowing CCM to validate GPU evidence via NVIDIA's attestation service or to simply check for evidence presence without validating the result. The guide also notes that host firmware and kernel settings must be configured manually, as the Fortanix CoCo Helm chart does not handle these aspects.