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4.11 Ensure that Compute instances have Confidential Computing enabled

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This audit has been deprecated and will be removed in a future update.

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Information

Google Cloud encrypts data at-rest and in-transit, but customer data must be decrypted for processing. Confidential Computing is a breakthrough technology which encrypts data in-use-while it is being processed. Confidential Computing environments keep data encrypted in memory and elsewhere outside the central processing unit (CPU).

Confidential VMs leverage the Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV) feature of AMD EPYC(TM) CPUs. Customer data will stay encrypted while it is used, indexed, queried, or trained on. Encryption keys are generated in hardware, per VM, and not exportable. Thanks to built-in hardware optimizations of both performance and security, there is no significant performance penalty to Confidential Computing workloads.

Rationale:

Confidential Computing enables customers' sensitive code and other data encrypted in memory during processing. Google does not have access to the encryption keys. Confidential VM can help alleviate concerns about risk related to either dependency on Google infrastructure or Google insiders' access to customer data in the clear.

Impact:

Confidential Computing for Compute instances does not support live migration. Unlike regular Compute instances, Confidential VMs experience disruptions during maintenance events like a software or hardware update.

Additional charges may be incurred when enabling this security feature. See https://cloud.google.com/compute/confidential-vm/pricing for more info.

Solution

Confidential Computing can only be enabled when an instance is created. You must delete the current instance and create a new one.
From Console:

Go to the VM instances page by visiting: https://console.cloud.google.com/compute/instances.

Click CREATE INSTANCE.

Fill out the desired configuration for your instance.

Under the Confidential VM service section, check the option Enable the Confidential Computing service on this VM instance.

Click Create.

From Command Line:
Create a new instance with Confidential Compute enabled.

gcloud beta compute instances create INSTANCE_NAME --zone ZONE --confidential-compute --maintenance-policy=TERMINATE

Default Value:

By default, Confidential Computing is disabled for Compute instances.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/3316

Item Details

References: CSCv7|13

Plugin: GCP

Control ID: 17e7456fafff991cb143653a372e137ab53ec0981535640e82fd017c1f4304f4