Nitro Enclaves concepts

The following concepts are important to your understanding and use of AWS Nitro Enclaves.

Enclave

An enclave is a virtual machine with its own kernel, memory, and CPUs. It is created by partitioning memory and vCPUs from a Nitro-based parent instance. An enclave has no external network connectivity, and no persistent storage. The enclave's isolated vCPUs and memory can't be accessed by the processes, applications, kernel, or users of the parent instance.

Enclave ID

An enclave ID is a unique identifier across AWS. It consists of the parent instance ID and an identifier for each enclave created by the instance. For example, an enclave created by a parent instance with an ID of i-1234567890abcdef0 could have an enclave ID of i-1234567890abcdef0-enc9876543210abcde.

Parent instance

The parent instance is the Amazon EC2 instance that is used to allocate CPU cores and memory to the enclave. The resources are allocated to the enclave for the duration of its lifetime. The parent instance is the only instance that can communicate with its enclave.

Enclave image file

An enclave image file (.eif) includes a Linux operating system, libraries, and enclave applications that will be booted into an enclave when it is launched.

AWS Nitro Enclaves CLI

The AWS Nitro Enclaves CLI (Nitro CLI) is a command line tool that is used to create, manage, and terminate enclaves. The Nitro CLI must be installed and used on the parent instance. For more information, see Nitro Enclaves Command Line Interface.

AWS Nitro Enclaves SDK

The AWS Nitro Enclaves SDK is an open-source library that you can use to develop enclave applications, or to update existing applications to run in an enclave. The SDKs also integrate with AWS KMS and provide built-in support for cryptographic attestation and other cryptographic operations. For more information, see Nitro Enclaves application development.

Cryptographic attestation

Cryptographic attestation is the process that an enclave uses to prove its identity and build trust with an external service. Attestation is accomplished using a signed attestation document that is generated by the Nitro Hypervisor. The values in an enclave's attestation document can be used as a condition for an authorization decision by an external party. AWS KMS allows you to use attestation document values in conditions keys to grant access to specific cryptographic operations. For more information, see Cryptographic attestation.

Attestation document

An attestation document is generated and signed by the Nitro Hypervisor. It contains information about the enclave, including platform configuration registers (PCRs), a cryptographic nonce, and additional information that you can define. It can be used by an external service to verify the identity of an enclave and to establish trust. You can use the attestation document to build your own cryptographic attestation mechanisms, or you can use it with AWS KMS, which provides built-in support for authorizing cryptographic requests based on values in the attestation document. For more information, see Cryptographic attestation.

Platform configuration registers

Platform configuration registers (PCRs) are cryptographic measurements that are unique to an enclave. Some PCRs are automatically generated when the enclave is created, and they can be used to verify that no changes have been made to the enclave since it was created. You can also manually create additional PCRs that can be used to ensure that the enclave is running on the instance on which you expect it to run. PCRs are included in the attestation document that is generated by the Nitro Hypervisor. You can use PCRs to create condition keys for AWS KMS keys. For more information, see Where to get an enclave's measurements.

KMS proxy

The KMS proxy is used by enclaves running in a parent instance to call AWS KMS through the parent instance's networking. The proxy ships with Nitro CLI and it runs on the parent instance. The proxy is required only if you use AWS KMS as your key management service and you perform AWS KMS operations (kms-decrypt, kms-generate-data-key, and kms-generate-random) using the Nitro Enclaves SDK. Sessions with KMS are established logically between AWS KMS and the enclave itself, and all session traffic is protected from the parent instance and from other enclaves.

Vsock socket

Vsock is a local communication channel between a parent instance and its enclaves. It is the only channel of communication that an enclave can use to interact with external services. An enclave launched from a parent instance will share the vsock with other enclaves launched from the same parent instance. An enclave's vsock address is defined by a context identifier (CID) that you can set when launching an enclave. Each enclave running on a parent instance gets a unique CID. The CID used by the parent instance is always 3.

On Linux, Vsock utilizes standard, well-defined POSIX socket APIs, such as connect, listen, and accept. On Windows, the Vsock uses the standard Windows sockets (Winsock2) API.