With vSphere Virtual Machine Encryption, you can create encrypted virtual machines and encrypt existing virtual machines. Because all virtual machine files with sensitive information are encrypted, the virtual machine is protected. Only administrators with encryption privileges can perform encryption and decryption tasks.
Starting in vSphere 7.0, you can configure vSphere Trust Authority to ensure that encrypted virtual machines run only on hardware that is attested and trusted. See vSphere Trust Authority.
What Storage Does vSphere Virtual Machine Encryption Support
vSphere Virtual Machine Encryption works with any supported storage type (NFS, iSCSI, Fiber Channel, and so on), including VMware vSAN. For more information about using encryption on a vSAN cluster, see Administering VMware vSAN documentation.
What Keys Are Used
- The ESXi host generates and uses internal keys to encrypt virtual machines and disks. These keys are used as data encryption keys (DEKs) and are XTS-AES-256 keys.
- vCenter Server requests keys from the KMS. These keys are used as the key encryption key (KEK) and are AES-256 keys. vCenter Server stores only the ID of each KEK, but not the key itself.
- ESXi uses the KEK to encrypt the internal keys, and stores the encrypted internal key on disk. ESXi does not store the KEK on disk. If a host reboots, vCenter Server requests the KEK with the corresponding ID from the KMS and makes it available to ESXi. ESXi can then decrypt the internal keys as needed.
vSphere Virtual Machine Encryption and vSAN use the same encryption libraries but they have different profiles. VM Encryption is a per-VM encryption and vSAN is a datastore level encryption.
What Is Encrypted
- Virtual machine files
- Most virtual machine files, in particular, guest data that are not stored in the VMDK file, are encrypted. This set of files includes but is not limited to the NVRAM, VSWP, and VMSN files. The key that vCenter Server retrieves from the KMS unlocks an encrypted bundle in the VMX file that contains internal keys and other secrets.
- Virtual disk files
- Data in an encrypted virtual disk (VMDK) file is never written in cleartext to storage or physical disk, and is never transmitted over the network in cleartext. The VMDK descriptor file is mostly cleartext, but contains a key ID for the KEK and the internal key (DEK) in the encrypted bundle.
- Core dumps
-
Core dumps on an
ESXi host that has encryption mode enabled are always encrypted. See
vSphere Virtual Machine Encryption and Core Dumps.
Note: Core dumps on the vCenter Server system are not encrypted. Protect access to the vCenter Server system.
What Is Not Encrypted
Who Can Perform Cryptographic Operations
Only users that are assigned the Cryptographic Operations privileges can perform cryptographic operations. The privilege set is fine grained. See Cryptographic Operations Privileges. The default Administrator system role includes all Cryptographic Operations privileges. The No Cryptography Administrator role supports all Administrator privileges except for the Cryptographic Operations privileges.
You can create additional custom roles, for example, to allow a group of users to encrypt virtual machines but to prevent them from decrypting virtual machines.
How Can I Perform Cryptographic Operations
The vSphere Client supports many of the cryptographic operations. For other tasks, you can use the vSphere API.
Interface | Operations | Information |
---|---|---|
vSphere Client | Create encrypted virtual machine Encrypt and decrypt virtual machines |
This book. |
vSphere Web Services SDK | Create encrypted virtual machine Encrypt and decrypt virtual machines Perform a deep recrypt of a virtual machine (use a different DEK). Perform a shallow recrypt of a virtual machine (use a different KEK). |
vSphere Web Services SDK Programming Guide vSphere Web Services API Reference |
crypto-util | Decrypt encrypted core dumps, check whether files are encrypted, and perform other management tasks directly on the ESXi host. | Command-line help. |
Recrypting Virtual Machines
When you recrypt a virtual machine, you generate new keys, for example, in case a key expires or becomes compromised. The following options are available when you generate new encryption keys for a virtual machine.
- A deep recrypt, which replaces both the Disk Encryption Key (DEK) and Key Encryption Key (KEK)
- A shallow recrypt, which replaces only the KEK
You must perform a recrypt of a virtual machine by using the API. See vSphere Web Services SDK Programming Guide.
A deep recrypt requires that the virtual machine is powered off and contains no snapshots. You can perform a shallow recrypt operation while the virtual machine is powered on, and if the virtual machine has snapshots present. Shallow recrypt of an encrypted virtual machine with snapshots is permitted only on a single snapshot branch (disk chain). Multiple snapshot branches are not supported. Also, shallow recrypt is not supported on a linked clone of a virtual machine or disk. If the shallow recrypt fails before updating all links in the chain with the new KEK, you can still access the encrypted virtual machine as long as you have the old and new KEKs. However, it is best to reissue the shallow recrypt operation before performing any snapshot operations.