Guest admin protection for confidential virtual machines

A computer-implemented method comprising:

• provisioning a confidential virtual machine (CVM) within a virtualization platform, the virtualization platform including confidential computing hardware configured to support encryption services to data while that data is in use on the CVM;
• providing a third party with administrative rights to the CVM, the administrative rights allowing the third party to modify a configuration of the CVM;
• after the administrative rights of the third party are removed from the CVM, receiving one or more measurements from the CVM;
• adding the one or more measurements to a build attestation report for the CVM;
• transmitting the build attestation report to a primary administrative party of the CVM;
• and
• using the confidential computing hardware, causing the CVM to enter operational service with confidential data upon receiving certification user input from the primary administrative party after review of the attestation report.

A computer storage device having computer-executable instructions stored thereon, which, on execution by a computer, cause the computer to perform operations comprising:

• provisioning a confidential virtual machine (CVM) within a virtualization platform, the virtualization platform including confidential computing hardware configured to support encryption services to data while that data is in use on the CVM;
• providing a third party with administrative rights to the CVM, the administrative rights allowing the third party to modify a configuration of the CVM;
• after the administrative rights of the third party are removed from the CVM, capturing one or more measurements from the CVM;
• adding the one or more measurements to a build attestation report for the CVM;
• transmitting the build attestation report to a primary administrative party of the CVM;
• and
• using the confidential computing hardware, causing the CVM to enter operational service with confidential data upon receiving certification user input from the primary administrative party after review of the attestation report.