Securing Cloud Virtual Machine Image Using Ethereum Blockchain

Abstract

Virtual Machine Image (VMI) is the building block of cloud infrastructure. It encapsulates the various applications and data deployed at the Cloud Service Provider (CSP) end. With the leading advances of cloud computing, comes the added concern of its security. Securing the Cloud infrastructure as a whole is based on the security of the underlying Virtual Machine Images (VMI). In this paper an attempt has been made to highlight the various risks faced by the CSP and Cloud Service Consumer (CSC) in the context of VMI related operations. Later, in this article a formal model of the cloud infrastructure has been proposed. Finally, the Ethereum blockchain has been incorporated to secure, track and manage all the vital operations of the VMIs. The immutable and decentralized nature of blockchain not only makes the proposed scheme more reliable but guarantees auditability of the system by maintaining the entire VMI history in the blockchain.