A living notebook on trusted execution, secure containers, and cloud security.

For the structure that governs where content lives and how to add to it without reintroducing duplication, see SCHEMA.md. For the history of structural changes, see CHANGELOG.md.

Sections

Index of all content pages

One line per file, in reading order.

Core Concepts — docs/core/

  • Confidential Computing Concepts — CIA goals, TEE/enclave/TCB definitions, generic attestation, generic CVMs, generic TPM-vs-HSM comparison, CC offerings taxonomy.
  • TEE Security Principles — design checklist for trustworthy TEEs (measure all inputs, attestation freshness, complementary techniques like RA-TLS, threat-model questions for builders and buyers).
  • TEEs in Practice — applied TEE landscape: crypto infrastructure (Coinbase, Flashbots), AI agents and MCP servers, x402 + TEEs + attestation, hybrid TEE+ZK trajectory.
  • Intel SGX — process-level enclaves: ECalls/OCalls, EDL, Open Enclave attestation APIs, EPC memory protection, enclave lifecycle.
  • Virtualization and Hypervisors — cloud-agnostic substrate: VMM, hosted vs. bare-metal, Type 1/Type 2 hypervisors, HA/FT/LM features, host-OS and VM-escape attack routes; sets up the trust-boundary gap that paravisors fill.
  • Intel TDX — VM-level CC: Trust Domains, SEAM, TDX Module, TME-MK encryption, Secure EPT, attestation, threat model. Index page; sub-pages below.
    • Intel TDX — ABI Reference — TDX Module binary interface: SEAMCALL/TDCALL, TD_PARAMS, REPORTMACSTRUCT, MBMD, page lifecycle states, migration bundles.
    • Intel TDX — Trusted I/O (TDISP) — bringing devices (GPUs, NICs, accelerators) into the TD trust boundary using PCI-SIG TDISP, SPDM, and IDE.
    • Intel TDX — Live Migration — TDX 1.5 cross-platform migration: Migration TDs, Migration Session Keys, AES-GCM-256 bundles, post-copy memory phase.
  • Paravisor: Secure Execution in Confidential Computing — paravisor architecture (neither Type 1 nor Type 2), OpenHCL framework (OpenVMM + boot loader + small Linux kernel), VMGS file, vTPM, why Windows specifically requires a paravisor (APIC + TPM), OpenHCL vs. COCONUT-SVSM, supporting unmodified guests inside CVMs.
  • NVIDIA GPU Confidential Computing — H100/Blackwell GPU-CC: FSP/GSP/SEC2/Copy Engines, Compute Protected Region, SPDM session keys, BAR0 Decoupler, attestation flow, known gaps.
  • Secure Key Release — cross-cloud SKR concept: KMS roles (attester / KBS / verifier / KMS), RATS background-check model, environment assertion, encrypted-filesystem pattern, ACI sidecar example.
  • Confidential AI — running AI workloads inside TEEs: memory encryption, end-to-end attested inference, OHTTP-based confidential inferencing example, AES-GCM IV considerations.
  • Live Migration — generic live migration: pre-copy/post-copy/hybrid, brownout/blackout phases, residual dependencies, dirty tracking, why CVM migration is harder.

Container Technologies — docs/containers/

  • Containers — container fundamentals: namespaces, cgroups, OCI specs, Docker architecture, OverlayFS, runtime taxonomy, Hyper-V vs. Kata isolation models.
  • Kata Containers — Kata Containers and Kata Confidential Containers: per-pod micro-VMs, attestation flow, AKS CoCo deep dive, OPA-based security policy.
  • Confidential Containers — CoCo project; Azure Container Instances confidential containers (LCOW + AMD SNP, ephemeral disk encryption, CCE policy, verifiable execution policies).
  • Kubernetes — Kubernetes in the CC context: per-cluster vs. per-pod TEE, etcd secrets, multi-tenant trust, Helm fundamentals.

Tools & Frameworks — docs/tools/

  • gRPC — RPC concepts: function-call semantics across machines, marshalling, naming services, failure semantics.
  • Open Policy Agent — OPA: Rego, Kubernetes admission control, API authorization, configuration validation.

Reference — docs/misc/

Microsoft Azure (per-cloud bundle: Overview + Security Architecture)

  • Microsoft Azure Overview — what Azure is: cloud-as-utility model; compute, storage, networking, databases, AI taxonomies; Azure Resource Manager; rebrandings and retirements.
  • Microsoft Azure Security Architecture — the consolidated security note. Five Parts running continuously across §§1–22:
    • Part I — The Platform Trust Chain (§§1–9): silicon catalog (canonical for confidential VM SKU families and the SKU naming convention), hardware roots of trust (Cerberus, Pluton, anti-rollback), UEFI, Secure Boot, measured boot + TPM 2.0 + PCRs (canonical), code integrity / HVCI / VBS / dm-verity, hashes (SHA family), Hyper-V architecture (canonical), confidential VMs and GPUs.
    • Part II — Infrastructure and Tenant Isolation (§§10–11): datacenter geography, two-network split, Fabric Controller, operational access (MCIO, JIT, SAW/PAW); customer’s grouping hierarchy, compute isolation spectrum, “trust grows monotonically” TCB table, network isolation, per-service isolation (Storage/SQL/App Service/AKS).
    • Part III — Encryption and Key Management (§§12–17): host attestation, MAA, THIM; envelope encryption; encryption at rest and in transit; double encryption; 5-way HSM decision (canonical for Marvell LiquidSecurity HSM details); Secure Key Release on Azure.
    • Part IV — Shared Responsibility and Customer Data (§§18–20): shared-responsibility matrix; defense-in-depth services (Entra ID + PIM, Defender for Cloud, Sentinel, Azure Firewall/DDoS/WAF, Trusted Launch canonical, JIT VM access); customer data protection (DPA, Customer Lockbox canonical, residency vs. sovereignty, NIST 800-88 hardware disposition, government data requests).
    • Part V — Through-Lines and Practical Takeaways (§§21–22).

Cloud-agnostic supplements

  • Cloud Fundamentals — autoscaling (vertical vs. horizontal, design considerations) and background jobs (event-driven and schedule-driven). Not CC-specific.
  • Reading List & Resources — external links: videos, papers, blog posts, tools/repos, books/courses, vendor docs, researcher pages.

Repo-root files

  • README.md — project overview, local development setup, contribution guide.
  • SCHEMA.md — structural rules: file ownership, cross-link convention, where new content goes, how to add a new cloud or topic.
  • CHANGELOG.md — history of structural changes (restructuring + deduplication passes).
  • CLAUDE.md — instructions for AI assistants working in this repo.