ZTKA: A Zero-Trust Based Kernel Encryption Architecture for Transparent Data Protection

The risk of data leakage has become a major challenge for various organizations. However, recent research has highlighted certain deficiencies in traditional data encryption schemes, significantly compromising the overall usability and security of systems especially for data in use. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a novel Linux kernellevel architecture based on zero-trust principles, named ZTKA. This architecture systematically integrates Zero Trust concepts, strictly adhering to the principle of least privilege access, and does not trust any other users or applications running on the same system. It achieves secure data isolation and protection of data in use. Our architecture ensures data security even in the event of partial system compromise by implementing secure key management, real-time data encryption, strict file isolation, and a series of performance optimization measures at the kernel level. The paper reviews the relevant theoretical background and provides empirical results from runtime measurements to compare performance and security with and without the kernel module. Observations indicate that the kernel-level architecture based on Zero Trust principles operates effectively across its modules, significantly enhancing the security of data usage in Linux while maintaining superior performance.