Dstack-TEE / Dstack-TEE/dstack
GPU attestation gate follow-ups: commit to RTMR, enforce CC mode, cache OCSP, SNP
- Dominant language
- Rust
- Stars
- 544
- Forks
- 96
- Avg merge
- 17h 57m
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 117
Description
## Context
The GPU attestation gate landed in #765 and Dstack-TEE/meta-dstack#83. It runs local `nvattest` before key provisioning, and fails closed if an attached GPU can't attest. That's a good foundation, but a few follow-ups remain before it's a complete, remotely-verifiable trust story. Design context is in #751.
## Follow-ups
- [x] **Commit the attestation result into an RTMR, not report_data.** Today it only lands in a file under `/run`, and the planned binding would put it in report_data. But report_data can be set by any app to any value. So a VM with no GPU could copy a real VM's value and pass, and a verifier couldn't tell the two apart. If dstack-util instead emits a `gpu-attestation` event before `system-ready`, the value lands in RTMR3, which is measured and append-only, so KMS and remote verifiers can actually trust it. It also closes a gap we have today: a no-GPU VM with `verify_gpu=true` currently looks identical to a verified one.
- [x] **Require CC mode on, and reject DEVTOOLS.** We run `nvattest` with no policy file, so success comes down to the `x-nvidia-overall-result` claim. That claim proves the GPU is genuine and its measurements match, but it does not require CC mode to be on. That means a GPU in DEVTOOLS mode, where memory encryption is off, can still pass. A small Rego policy that requires CC on and debug off would close this.
- [x] **Don't let OCSP turn into a boot DoS.** Local verify makes a live call to NVIDIA's OCSP endpoint at boot (that's what the chrony step is for). Because the gate is fail-closed, anyone who blocks that endpoint stops every GPU VM from booting. That includes a malicious host, but also an egress-restricted or air-gapped deployment, or plain NVIDIA downtime. Caching or stapling the OCSP response would avoid it.
- [ ] **Add SNP support.** The RTMR approach doesn't port to SEV-SNP, because SNP has no runtime measurement register: its identity comes from launch-time HOST_DATA. So SNP will need a vTPM before the same binding works. Worth tracking now, otherwise SNP quietly ships a weaker binding.
Refs: #765, Dstack-TEE/meta-dstack#83, #751.
Contributor guide
Research direction
Start with the design context in #751 and the existing attestation work referenced in #765 and Dstack-TEE/meta-dstack#83. Trace dstack-util’s event path around system-ready and determine the SNP/vTPM integration boundary; done means SNP has the same remotely verifiable binding without relying on an RTMR.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- rust
- Domain
- security
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100