An attestation protocol between a host system and a data processing accelerator

A non-transitory machine-readable medium having instructions stored therein, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:

• receiving at a host system a public attestation key (PK_ATT) or a signed PK_ATT from a data processing (DP) accelerator over a bus;
• verifying the PK_ATT using a public root key (PK_RK) associated with the DP accelerator;
• in response to successfully verifying the PK_ATT, transmitting a kernel identifier (ID) to the DP accelerator to request attestation of a kernel object stored in the DP accelerator;
• in response to receiving a kernel digest or a signed kernel digest corresponding to the kernel object form the DP accelerator, verifying the kernel digest using the PK_ATT;
• and
• sending the verification results to the DP accelerator for the DP accelerator to access the kernel object based on the verification results.

A method for attestation between a host system and a data processing accelerator, the method comprising:

• in response to an attestation request received from a host system, generating at a data processing (DP) accelerator an attestation key pair having a public attestation key (PK_ATT) and a private attestation key (SK_ATT);
• transmitting the PK_ATT or a signed PK_ATT from the DP accelerator to the host system, wherein the DP accelerator is coupled to the host system over a bus;
• receiving a kernel identifier (ID) identifying a kernel object from the host system, wherein the kernel ID is received in response to successful verification of the PK_ATT;
• generating a kernel digest by hashing an executable image of the kernel object in response to the kernel ID;
• and
• transmitting a signed kernel digest or the kernel digest to the host system to allow the host system to verify and attest the kernel object before accessing the kernel object to be executed within the DP accelerator.