Secure management of operations on protected virtual machines

A computing system comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• one or more storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that are executable by the one or more processors to cause the computing system to implement a method for transitioning a virtual machine from one security trust level to a different security trust level, the method comprising:
• a computing system causing the virtual machine which is executing on the computer system at a launching trust level to load a virtual secure mode image into one or more memory pages of a virtual memory space of the virtual machine, the virtual secure mode image corresponding to a target trust level that is higher than the launching trust level and prior to the virtual machine being enabled to execute at the target trust level;
• the computing system restricting access to the one or more memory pages in response to the virtual secure mode image being loaded into the one or more memory pages;
• and
• the computing system verifying the virtual secure mode image and enabling the virtual machine to execute at the target virtual trust level.

In a computing environment, a method of deploying an encrypted entity on a trusted entity, the method comprising:

• at a trusted entity, wherein the trusted entity is trusted by an authority as a result of providing a verifiable indication of certain characteristics of the trusted entity meeting certain requirements, receiving an encrypted entity from an untrusted entity, where the untrusted entity is not trusted by the authority;
• at the trusted entity, using a trust credential from the authority to obtain a key from a key distribution service, where the key distribution service is trusted by the authority;
• and
• using the key, decrypting the encrypted entity to allow the encrypted entity to be deployed at the trusted entity.