Secure storage of workload attestation reports in a virtualized and clustered computer system

A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions to be executed in a computing device to cause the computing device to carry out a method of secure attestation of a workload deployed in a virtualized computing system, the virtualized computing system including a host cluster and a virtualization management server, the host cluster having hosts and a virtualization layer executing on hardware platforms of the hosts, the method comprising:

• generating, by a trust authority running on a processor of the virtualization management server, a hash of at least a portion of an image of a virtual machine (VM) managed by the virtualization layer, and then storing, by the trust authority, a pre-defined attestation report that includes the hash generated by the trust authority;
• receiving, at the trust authority from a security module of a host in which the VM executes, an attestation report that the security module generated by hashing at least a portion of the image, wherein a portion of the image is encrypted;
• and
• determining, by the trust authority, a match between the received attestation report and the pre-defined attestation report, and then transmitting, by the trust authority to the security module, a secret that is acquired from a key management service and used by the VM to access information from the encrypted portion of the image.

A virtualized computing system, comprising:

• a host cluster and a virtualization management server each connected to a network, wherein the host cluster includes hosts and a virtualization layer executing on hardware platforms of the hosts, and wherein a trust authority is configured to run on a processor of the virtualization management server and is configured to perform secure attestation of a workload deployed in the host cluster by:
• generating a hash of at least a portion of an image of a virtual machine (VM) managed by the virtualization layer, and then storing a pre-defined attestation report that includes the hash generated by the trust authority;
• receiving, from a security module of a host in which the VM executes, an attestation report that the security module generated by hashing at least a portion of the image, wherein a portion of the image is encrypted;
• and
• determining a match between the received attestation report and the pre-defined attestation report, and then transmitting to the security module, a secret that is acquired from a key management service and used by the VM to access information from the encrypted portion of the image.