Under-development

This project is still under development, any feedback and contribution on this project would be helpful 😃

Comparing the different trusted Execution Environements

The different properties taken into account

Each TEE from hardware manufacturers might have different properties. This section details what will be compared.

• Isolation technology (confidentiality) : TEEs use different methods that preserves isolation. This property defines the type; either virtualization, hardware isolation or other.
• Attestation and sealing capabilities (integrity) : Remote attestation and sealing are the backbone of confidential computing, and not all TEEs supports it.
• Development resources (Ease of use, development and update) :
• Overhead and performance
• Limitations

Comparison table

TPMs are included in this comparison although they are not a TEE. The reason for that is vTPMs are used in Confidential VMs (such as for AMD SEV-SNP) to establish remote attestation. More on this on the AMD SEV-SNP chapter.

Another reason, is that we can have a Hypervisor-based TEE using vTPMs. You can find more details on the TPM chapter.

Capabilities	Trusted Platform Modules (TPMs)	AMD SEV-SNP	Intel TDX	Intel SGX	Nvidia H100	ARM CCA	RISC-V Keystone
Attestation	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Sealing	✅	✅	✅	✅	❔	❔	❔
Isolation Technology	❌	Virtualization	Virtualization	Hardware	❔	❔	❔
Overhead and performance	mostly signing overhead	Overhead when encrypting/Decrypting RAM	Overhead when encrypting/Decrypting RAM	Depending on the workload/SGX is bound by physical performance of available SGX tables.	Crypto functions overhead.	No information	No information
Security and update complexity	Depending on the vendor and hardware implementation, software is reviewed continuously. Udpating the software is feasable but not the hardware that comes with it	Continuously reviewed. Firmware udpates are quick.	Continuously reviewed. Firmware udpates are quick.	Updating following a high-severity vulnerability is quite tricky sometimes, and might be impossible depending on the implementation	Firmware updates are available and quickly implemented (driver update). Software is continuously reviewed. The firmware is new and might still unexplored for security purposes.	No information	❔
Development & resources	Lots of features and ressources according to each one. Might take time to understand some concepts. Development and usage is fairly simple (Lot of libraries in different programming languages)	Fairly easy to use. Installation might be tricky.	Fairly easy to use. Installation might be tricky.	There is some difficulty to implement basic functionalities depending on the programming language used. Installation and updates are troublesome.	Ease of use and installation. Lack of detailed ressources.	❔	❔
Current use-cases	Bitlocker, DRM...	Confidential AI		Signal Contact discovery service, Crypto exchanges ...	Confidential AI	DRM ?	DRM ?
Limitations	Small processor that has a lot of features but is slow			Scalability	Does not work without a Confidential VM