Session 10A: Confidential Computing 2   Authors, Creators & Presenters: Qihang Zhou (Institute of Information Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences), Wenzhuo Cao (Institute of Information Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences; School of Cyberspace Security, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences), Xiaoqi Jia (Institute of Information Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences), Peng Liu (The Pennsylvania State University, USA), Shengzhi Zhang (Department of Computer Science, Metropolitan College, Boston University, USA), Jiayun Chen (Institute of Information Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences; School of Cyberspace Security, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences), Shaowen Xu (Institute of Information Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences; School of Cyberspace Security, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences), Zhenyu Song (Institute of Information Engineering, Chinese Academy of Science) PAPER RContainer: A Secure Container Architecture through Extending ARM CCA Hardware Primitives Containers have become widely adopted in cloud platforms due to their efficient deployment and high resource utilization. However, their weak isolation has always posed a significant security concern. In this paper, we propose RContainer, a novel secure container architecture that protects containers from untrusted operating systems and enforces strong isolation among containers by extending ARM Confidential Computing Architecture (CCA) hardware primitives. RContainer introduces a small, trusted mini-OS that runs alongside the deprivileged OS, responsible for monitoring the control flow between the operating system and containers. Additionally, RContainer uses shim-style isolation, creating an isolated physical address space called con-shim for each container at the kernel layer through the Granule Protection Check mechanism. We have implemented RContainer on ARMv9-A Fixed Virtual Platform and ARMv8 hardware SoC for security analysis and performance evaluation. Experimental results demonstrate that RContainer can significantly enhance container security with a modest performance overhead and a minimal Trusted Computing Base (TCB).  ABOUT NDSS The Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS) fosters information exchange among researchers and practitioners of network and distributed system security. The target audience includes those interested in practical aspects of network and distributed system security, with a focus on actual system design and implementation. A major goal is to encourage and enable the Internet community to apply, deploy, and advance the state of available security technologies.  Our thanks to the Network and Distributed System Security (NDSS) Symposium for publishing their Creators, Authors and Presenter’s superb NDSS Symposium 2025 Conference content on the Organizations' YouTube Channel.  Permalink

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RContainer is a secure container architecture that extends ARM Confidential Computing Architecture (CCA) hardware primitives to protect containers from untrusted operating systems and enforce strong isolation. It introduces a trusted mini-OS for monitoring control flow and uses shim-style isolation to create isolated physical address spaces for each container. Implemented on ARMv9-A and ARMv8 hardware, RContainer enhances container security with modest performance overhead and minimal Trusted Computing Base.

NDSS 2025 – RContainer