Selecting an hsm for association to a secure guest

A security system for a policy-based association of a HSM with a secure guest in a confidential computing environment, the security system comprising a processor and a memory operationally coupled to the processor, wherein the memory stores software program code, which, when executed by the processor, enables the processor to:

• maintain, using a trusted firmware, a binding between a secure guest and an HSM, wherein the binding enables the trusted guest to send only non-sensitive requests to the HSM;
• maintain, using the trusted firmware, for a secure guest, a pair of a secret and a secret name;
• submit, by the secure guest via the trusted firmware, a query to the bound HSM for obtaining HSM configuration data;
• and
• upon determining, by the secure guest, that the obtained HSM configuration data match a policy rule available to the secure guest, wherein the policy rule associates the HSM configuration data to a secret name, request, by the secure guest from the trusted firmware, to associate the secret from the pair of secret and the secret name with the bound HSM, thereby triggering that the trusted firmware allows the secure guest to submit a sensitive crypto-request to the bound and associated HSM.

A computer program product for a policy-based association of an HSM with a secure guest in a confidential computing environment, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions being executable by one or more computing systems or controllers to cause the one or more computing systems to:

• maintain, using a trusted firmware, a binding between a secure guest and an HSM, wherein the binding enables the trusted guest to send only non-sensitive requests to the HSM;
• maintain, using the trusted firmware, for a secure guest, a pair of a secret and a secret name;
• submit, by the secure guest via the trusted firmware, a query to the bound HSM or obtaining HSM configuration data;
• and
• upon determining, by the secure guest, that the obtained HSM configuration data match a policy rule available to the secure guest, wherein the policy rule associates the HSM configuration data to a secret name, request, by the secure guest from the trusted firmware, to associate the secret from the pair of secret and the secret name with the bound HSM, thereby triggering that the trusted firmware allows the secure guest to submit a sensitive crypto-request to the bound and associated HSM.