base on Assured confidential execution (ACE) implements VM-based trusted execution environment (TEE) for embedded RISC-V systems with focus on a formally verified and auditable firmware. # Assured Confidential Execution (ACE) for RISC-V   <img src=".github/ace.png" align="right" width="100" height="100"> ACE-RISCV is an open-source project, whose goal is to deliver a confidential computing framework with a formally proven security monitor. It is based on the [canonical architecture](https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3623652.3623668) and targets RISC-V with the goal of being portable to other architectures. The formal verification efforts focus on the [security monitor implementation](security-monitor/). We invite collaborators to work with us to push the boundaries of provable confidential computing technology. **Formal verification:** This project implements the RISC-V CoVE spec's deployment model 3 referenced in [Appendix D](https://github.com/riscv-non-isa/riscv-ap-tee/blob/main/). The formal specification is embedded in the security monitor's source code and the proofs are in the [verification/](verification/) folder. Please read our [paper1](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2505.12995) and [paper2](https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3623652.3623668) to learn about the approach and goals. **Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) and Attestation**: ACE supports local attestation, a mechanism to authenticate confidential VMs intended for embedded systems with limited or no network connectivity. We already support PQC, specifically we use ML-KEM, SHA-384, and AES-GCM-256 cryptography. ## Hardware requirements We are currently building on RISC-V 64-bit with integer (I), atomic (A) and hypervisor extentions (H), physical memory protection (PMP), memory management unit (MMU), IOPMP, core-local interrupt controller (CLINT), and supervisor timecmp extension (Sstc). **RISC-V hardware to run ACE:** * HiFive Premiere P550 evaluation board, [see instructions](security-monitor/platform/p550). ## Quick Start Follow instructions to run one of the sample [confidential workloads](confidential-vms) under an [untrusted Linux KVM hypervisor](hypervisor/) in an emulated RISC-V environment. ### Requirements Full compilation of the framework takes a long time because many tools are built from sources. Our toolchain currently includes: hypervisor kernel (`Linux kernel`), confidential guest kernel (`Linux kernel`) and firmware (`security monitor` with `OpenSBI firmware`). Make sure to build this project on a machine with at least 4 cores, 4GB RAM, and 50GB disk space for reasonable (~30min) build time. ### Dependencies You must install build dependencies specific to the operating system you use AND install the Rust toolchain. You can also look at the [reproducible build configuration](.github/workflows/build.yml) of the continous integration (CI) system. Dependencies for Ubuntu 22.04 ``` sudo apt update # riscv-gnu-toolchain dependencies: sudo apt -qq -y install autoconf automake autotools-dev curl python3 libmpc-dev libmpfr-dev libgmp-dev gawk build-essential bison flex texinfo gperf libtool patchutils bc zlib1g-dev libexpat-dev xz-utils # OpenSBI sudo apt -qq -y install clang # Qemu 8.2 sudo apt -qq -y install git libglib2.0-dev libfdt-dev libpixman-1-dev zlib1g-dev ninja-build python3-venv libslirp-dev # Buildroot sudo apt -qq -y install unzip sed binutils diffutils build-essential bash patch gzip bzip2 perl tar cpio unzip rsync file bc findutils # utilities sudo apt install -y sshpass ``` Install the latest Rust: ``` curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh -s -- -y source "$HOME/.cargo/env" rustup default nightly rustup target add riscv64gc-unknown-none-elf rustup component add rustfmt cargo install cargo-binutils # check that the below lines are in the ~/.bashrc . "$HOME/.cargo/env" ``` ### Sources Checkout this repository with submodules: ``` git clone --recurse-submodules [email protected]:IBM/ACE-RISCV.git ``` ### Compilation #### Prerequisites Run the following commands from the directory containing this README file. Make sure once again that all submodules are fetched: ``` git submodule update --init --recursive ``` Set up the ACE_DIR variable to point to the location where the project will build. Default is the `build/` subdirectory of the location where you will execute the `make` command. ``` export ACE_DIR=/your/path/to/build/ace ``` #### Build everything The following command will build the entire framework. Set `-j` flag to the number of processor cores you have in the system. Below command assumes that you have 4 cores. ``` MAKEFLAGS="--silent -j4" make ``` #### Build individual components Alternativly, you can build individual components to avoid long builds that can lead to 'ssh disconnections', 'hangups', and similar issues. Install all develoment tools required to compile code for the RISC-V architecture: ``` make devtools ``` Build the host OS -- [a Linux KVM hypervisor](hypervisor/): ``` make hypervisor ``` Build [the low level firmware](security-monitor/opensbi) responsible for the boot process. This command will also build the [security monitor (SM)](security-monitor/): ``` make firmware ``` Build sample [confidential workloads](confidential-vms/): ``` make confidential_vms ``` Build the RISC-V emulator and utility tools that simplify running the test environment: ``` make emulator ``` ## Run and Test Make sure you have the `ACE_DIR` environmental variable set and it points to the location of your build. Check the 'Compilation' section in case this variable is not set. ``` echo $ACE_DIR ``` To run the test environment on a RISC-V emulator run: ``` ${ACE_DIR}/tools/ace run ``` You should see the output from the boot process and a promt to login to the hypervisor: ``` # login: root, password: passwd ``` To run the sample Linux OS as a confidential VM (login: root, password: passwd) execute: ``` ./run_linux_vm_qemu.sh ``` You should see the output indicating that local attestation suceeded: ``` #ACE: Reference PCR4=Sha512=0x86774eec200ca6552cbc50211e4b32e7a4ba815c190d56b11ffabc8df1ebb6d9c41d04a64099d860b90c65729a28ded8 #ACE: Attestation succeeded, read 1 secret ``` You can login now to the confidential VM: ``` # login: root, password: passwd ``` You can read the secret from the inside of the confidential VM: ``` # if the root file system has not been mounted, then execute below: mount /dev/vda /root cd /root/root/ace_module insmod ace.ko ``` You should see the secret: ``` [ 203.051959] Requesting secret from the security monitor [ 203.107150] Secret=0xc0ffee ``` Integrating local attestation with dm-crypt/LUKS is work in progress. When finished, you will be able to encrypt your rootfs and pass the decryption key via TAP. A script in initrd will then retrieve the decryption key from TAP and decrypt the rootfs. # License This repository is distributed under the terms of the Apache 2.0 License, see [LICENSE](LICENSE). **This is an active research project, without warranties of any kind.** # Citation **Our newest full paper on ACE:** ``` @misc{ozga2025ace, author = {Ozga, Wojciech and Hunt, Guerney D. H. and Le, Michael V. and Gaeher Lennard and Shinnar, Avraham and Palmer, Elaine R. and Jamjoom, Hani and Dragone, Silvio}, title = {ACE: Confidential Computing for Embedded RISC-V Systems}, year = 2025, howpublished = {\url{https://arxiv.org/pdf/2505.12995}} } ``` **Our workshop paper on ACE:** ``` @inproceedings{ozga2023riscvtee, title={Towards a Formally Verified Security Monitor for VM-based Confidential Computing}, author={Ozga, Wojciech and Hunt, Guerney D. H. and Le, Michael V. and Palmer, Elaine R. and Shinnar, Avraham}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 12th International Workshop on Hardware and Architectural Support for Security and Privacy}, series = {HASP2023}, year={2023} } ``` **Our paper on context switch validation:** ``` @misc{kalani2025sailor, author = {Kalani, Neelu and Bourgeat, Thomas and Hunt, Guerney D.H. and Ozga, Wojciech}, title = {Save what must be saved: Secure context switching with Sailor}, year = 2025, howpublished = {\url{https://arxiv.org/pdf/2502.06609}} } ``` ", Assign "at most 3 tags" to the expected json: {"id":"13851","tags":[]} "only from the tags list I provide: [{"id":77,"name":"3d"},{"id":89,"name":"agent"},{"id":17,"name":"ai"},{"id":54,"name":"algorithm"},{"id":24,"name":"api"},{"id":44,"name":"authentication"},{"id":3,"name":"aws"},{"id":27,"name":"backend"},{"id":60,"name":"benchmark"},{"id":72,"name":"best-practices"},{"id":39,"name":"bitcoin"},{"id":37,"name":"blockchain"},{"id":1,"name":"blog"},{"id":45,"name":"bundler"},{"id":58,"name":"cache"},{"id":21,"name":"chat"},{"id":49,"name":"cicd"},{"id":4,"name":"cli"},{"id":64,"name":"cloud-native"},{"id":48,"name":"cms"},{"id":61,"name":"compiler"},{"id":68,"name":"containerization"},{"id":92,"name":"crm"},{"id":34,"name":"data"},{"id":47,"name":"database"},{"id":8,"name":"declarative-gui "},{"id":9,"name":"deploy-tool"},{"id":53,"name":"desktop-app"},{"id":6,"name":"dev-exp-lib"},{"id":59,"name":"dev-tool"},{"id":13,"name":"ecommerce"},{"id":26,"name":"editor"},{"id":66,"name":"emulator"},{"id":62,"name":"filesystem"},{"id":80,"name":"finance"},{"id":15,"name":"firmware"},{"id":73,"name":"for-fun"},{"id":2,"name":"framework"},{"id":11,"name":"frontend"},{"id":22,"name":"game"},{"id":81,"name":"game-engine "},{"id":23,"name":"graphql"},{"id":84,"name":"gui"},{"id":91,"name":"http"},{"id":5,"name":"http-client"},{"id":51,"name":"iac"},{"id":30,"name":"ide"},{"id":78,"name":"iot"},{"id":40,"name":"json"},{"id":83,"name":"julian"},{"id":38,"name":"k8s"},{"id":31,"name":"language"},{"id":10,"name":"learning-resource"},{"id":33,"name":"lib"},{"id":41,"name":"linter"},{"id":28,"name":"lms"},{"id":16,"name":"logging"},{"id":76,"name":"low-code"},{"id":90,"name":"message-queue"},{"id":42,"name":"mobile-app"},{"id":18,"name":"monitoring"},{"id":36,"name":"networking"},{"id":7,"name":"node-version"},{"id":55,"name":"nosql"},{"id":57,"name":"observability"},{"id":46,"name":"orm"},{"id":52,"name":"os"},{"id":14,"name":"parser"},{"id":74,"name":"react"},{"id":82,"name":"real-time"},{"id":56,"name":"robot"},{"id":65,"name":"runtime"},{"id":32,"name":"sdk"},{"id":71,"name":"search"},{"id":63,"name":"secrets"},{"id":25,"name":"security"},{"id":85,"name":"server"},{"id":86,"name":"serverless"},{"id":70,"name":"storage"},{"id":75,"name":"system-design"},{"id":79,"name":"terminal"},{"id":29,"name":"testing"},{"id":12,"name":"ui"},{"id":50,"name":"ux"},{"id":88,"name":"video"},{"id":20,"name":"web-app"},{"id":35,"name":"web-server"},{"id":43,"name":"webassembly"},{"id":69,"name":"workflow"},{"id":87,"name":"yaml"}]" returns me the "expected json"