D4.3 – CONFIDENTIAL ORCHESTRATION

This report describes work done in Task 4.3 of the CONFIDENTIAL6G (C6G) project. The report explores the drivers and technologies for confidential orchestration – i.e., for automating deployment and configuration of security critical applications, services, and AI solutions – in the 6G landscape. The report describes enablers and our proof-of-concepts for managing confidential workflows to edge-cloud-IoT infrastructure that cannot be fully trusted by the 6G operators. We contribute by enabling and verifying feasibility of confidential container technology implementations at the cloud-edge-IoT continuum. Further, we provide a structured review and analysis of the motives, requirements, threats, and technologies towards confidential orchestration approaches. Key innovations of the work include: Proposing a consolidated architecture that considers confidential orchestration over diverse platforms in heterogeneous computing infrastructure and addresses the role of data sharing and remote attestation approaches in increasing trust towards diverse and distributed applications. Exploring and mitigating the energy and computational costs of confidential containers by measuring the overhead of confidential containers on ARM-based edge devices and proposing an optimization approach (scheduling which is driven by sustainability and security). Improving the security of confidential orchestration by studying and mitigating the side-channel threats against confidential containers.