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Remote attestation

Use remote attestation to verify that an EGo app is indeed running inside an enclave and to identify it by its hash.

Attestation relies on external SGX services:

  • The Provisioning Certificate Caching Service (PCCS) caches attestation data from Intel. It's either operated by the cloud provider or must be hosted by yourself.
  • The quote provider helps EGo to connect to the PCCS. Both the attester and the verifier must install it.

Set up the quote provider​

Install the quote provider on all machines that should host or verify EGo apps:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
wget -qO- https://download.01.org/intel-sgx/sgx_repo/ubuntu/intel-sgx-deb.key | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/intel-sgx-keyring.asc > /dev/null
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/intel-sgx-keyring.asc arch=amd64] https://download.01.org/intel-sgx/sgx_repo/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/intel-sgx.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install libsgx-dcap-default-qpl

Locate its configuration file at /etc/sgx_default_qcnl.conf. If the file doesn't exist or is outdated, download it with the following command:

wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/intel/SGXDataCenterAttestationPrimitives/master/QuoteGeneration/qcnl/linux/sgx_default_qcnl.conf | sudo tee /etc/sgx_default_qcnl.conf > /dev/null

You can configure the quote provider to get the collaterals from the Intel PCS, the PCCS of your cloud service provider (CSP), or your own PCCS.

Intel PCS (verifier only)​

note

This method only supports verification. For configuring machines that host EGo apps, choose one of the other methods.

Using the Intel PCS is the simplest and most generic way for verifying, but it may be slower and less reliable than a PCCS. Configure it by uncommenting the "collateral_service" key:

  ,"collateral_service": "https://api.trustedservices.intel.com/sgx/certification/v4/"

PCCS of your CSP​

If you're running an EGo app in the cloud, it's recommended to use the PCCS of your CSP. Set the "pccs_url" value to the respective address:

  • Azure: https://global.acccache.azure.net/sgx/certification/v4/

    See the Azure documentation for more information on configuring the quote provider.

  • Alibaba: https://sgx-dcap-server.[Region-ID].aliyuncs.com/sgx/certification/v4/

    See the Alibaba documentation for supported Region-ID values and more information on configuring the quote provider.

Your own PCCS​

If you're running an EGo app on premises, you must host a PCCS yourself.

Set up the PCCS​

To set up a PCCS, you can either follow the instructions from Intel or use our provided Docker image.

To do the latter, follow these steps:

  1. Register with Intel to get a PCCS API key

  2. Run the PCCS:

    docker run -e APIKEY=<your-API-key> -p 8081:8081 --name pccs -d ghcr.io/edgelesssys/pccs

  3. Verify that the PCCS is running:

    curl -kv https://localhost:8081/sgx/certification/v4/rootcacrl

    You should see a 200 status code.

Configure the quote provider​

In the configuration file, set the "pccs_url" value to the address of your PCCS.

If your PCCS runs with a certificate not signed by a trusted CA, you need to set "use_secure_cert" to false. This instructs the quote provider to accept a self-signed certificate of the PCCS. It doesn't affect the security of the remote attestation process itself.