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-rw-r--r--docs/amd-memory-encryption.txt2
-rw-r--r--docs/confidential-guest-support.txt43
2 files changed, 44 insertions, 1 deletions
diff --git a/docs/amd-memory-encryption.txt b/docs/amd-memory-encryption.txt
index 80b8eb00e9..145896aec7 100644
--- a/docs/amd-memory-encryption.txt
+++ b/docs/amd-memory-encryption.txt
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ complete flow chart.
To launch a SEV guest
# ${QEMU} \
- -machine ...,memory-encryption=sev0 \
+ -machine ...,confidential-guest-support=sev0 \
-object sev-guest,id=sev0,cbitpos=47,reduced-phys-bits=1
Debugging
diff --git a/docs/confidential-guest-support.txt b/docs/confidential-guest-support.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..bd439ac800
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/confidential-guest-support.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+Confidential Guest Support
+==========================
+
+Traditionally, hypervisors such as QEMU have complete access to a
+guest's memory and other state, meaning that a compromised hypervisor
+can compromise any of its guests. A number of platforms have added
+mechanisms in hardware and/or firmware which give guests at least some
+protection from a compromised hypervisor. This is obviously
+especially desirable for public cloud environments.
+
+These mechanisms have different names and different modes of
+operation, but are often referred to as Secure Guests or Confidential
+Guests. We use the term "Confidential Guest Support" to distinguish
+this from other aspects of guest security (such as security against
+attacks from other guests, or from network sources).
+
+Running a Confidential Guest
+----------------------------
+
+To run a confidential guest you need to add two command line parameters:
+
+1. Use "-object" to create a "confidential guest support" object. The
+ type and parameters will vary with the specific mechanism to be
+ used
+2. Set the "confidential-guest-support" machine parameter to the ID of
+ the object from (1).
+
+Example (for AMD SEV)::
+
+ qemu-system-x86_64 \
+ <other parameters> \
+ -machine ...,confidential-guest-support=sev0 \
+ -object sev-guest,id=sev0,cbitpos=47,reduced-phys-bits=1
+
+Supported mechanisms
+--------------------
+
+Currently supported confidential guest mechanisms are:
+
+AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV)
+ docs/amd-memory-encryption.txt
+
+Other mechanisms may be supported in future.