PQC & Security

Comprehensive security reference for QuantaVirt — post-quantum cryptographic algorithms, QUAC 100 hardware acceleration, key management, VM attestation, confidential computing with AMD SEV-SNP and Intel TDX, memory encryption, secure boot, and compliance frameworks.

Security Overview #

QuantaVirt is the first hypervisor designed from the ground up with post-quantum cryptography. Every cryptographic operation — disk encryption, network tunnels, VM attestation, migration authentication, and key management — uses NIST-standardized PQC algorithms. When a Dyber QUAC 100 accelerator card is present, all PQC operations are hardware-accelerated with sub-microsecond latency.

Threat Model #

QuantaVirt's security architecture addresses the following threat categories:

PQC Algorithms #

QuantaVirt implements NIST FIPS 203 (ML-KEM) and FIPS 204 (ML-DSA) post-quantum standards, with SLH-DSA (FIPS 205) as a stateless hash-based backup.

ML-KEM (Key Encapsulation)

ML-DSA (Digital Signatures)

Symmetric Algorithms

QUAC 100 Integration #

The Dyber QUAC 100 is a PCIe Gen5 x8x8 cryptographic accelerator card that provides hardware-accelerated PQC operations and quantum random number generation. When installed in the hypervisor host, QuantaVirt automatically delegates all PQC operations to the QUAC 100.

# Check QUAC 100 status
quantavirt pqc status
# PQC Backend:     QUAC 100 Hardware
# Device:          0000:03:00.0 (vendor=0x1DB7 device=0x0100)
# Firmware:        1.0.0
# Temperature:     42°C
# Operations/sec:  234,567 (current load)
# QRNG Status:     Active (entropy pool: full)
# Key Store:       12 / 1024 slots used

# Run PQC self-test
quantavirt pqc self-test
# ML-KEM-512:    PASS (keygen, encaps, decaps)
# ML-KEM-768:    PASS (keygen, encaps, decaps)
# ML-KEM-1024:   PASS (keygen, encaps, decaps)
# ML-DSA-44:     PASS (keygen, sign, verify)
# ML-DSA-65:     PASS (keygen, sign, verify)
# ML-DSA-87:     PASS (keygen, sign, verify)
# AES-256-GCM:   PASS
# QRNG:          PASS (NIST SP 800-90B)

Key Management #

QuantaVirt maintains a hierarchical key store. When a QUAC 100 is present, private keys are stored in the hardware's secure key store and never exposed to host software. Without QUAC 100, keys are stored in an encrypted file on disk, protected by a passphrase-derived key.

# Generate keys
quantavirt pqc key-gen --algorithm ML-KEM-768 --name storage-master --store quac100
quantavirt pqc key-gen --algorithm ML-DSA-65 --name host-identity --store quac100

# List keys
quantavirt pqc key-list
# NAME             ALGORITHM    STORE      CREATED                  PURPOSE
# storage-master   ML-KEM-768   QUAC 100   2026-01-15T10:00:00Z     Storage encryption KEK
# host-identity    ML-DSA-65    QUAC 100   2026-01-15T10:00:01Z     Host authentication
# vm-attest-001    ML-DSA-44    QUAC 100   2026-01-15T11:30:00Z     VM attestation

# Rotate a key (generates new key, re-encrypts all dependent resources)
quantavirt pqc key-rotate storage-master

# Export public key (for remote host trust establishment)
quantavirt pqc key-export host-identity --public --output host-identity.pub

# Import a remote host's public key (for migration trust)
quantavirt pqc key-import --name remote-host-01 --input remote-host.pub

VM Attestation #

VM attestation provides cryptographic proof of a VM's identity and configuration. The hypervisor signs a measurement of the VM's initial state (firmware, kernel, initrd, boot parameters) with an ML-DSA key. Remote parties can verify the attestation report to confirm the VM is running the expected software.

# Enable attestation on a VM
"pqc": {
  "enabled": true,
  "attestation": {
    "enabled": true,
    "algorithm": "ML-DSA-65",
    "key": "vm-attest-001",
    "measure": ["firmware", "kernel", "initrd", "cmdline", "config_hash"]
  }
}

# Request attestation report
quantavirt vm attest web-01
# Attestation Report:
#   VM:          web-01
#   Algorithm:   ML-DSA-65
#   Signer:      vm-attest-001
#   Timestamp:   2026-01-15T14:30:00Z
#   Measurements:
#     firmware:   sha3-256:a1b2c3d4...  (OVMF 2024-Q4)
#     kernel:     sha3-256:e5f6a7b8...  (vmlinuz-6.6.0)
#     initrd:     sha3-256:c9d0e1f2...  (initramfs-6.6.0)
#     cmdline:    sha3-256:34567890...
#     config:     sha3-256:abcdef01...
#   Signature:   ML-DSA-65:0x3045...
#   Status:      VALID

# Verify attestation report externally
quantavirt pqc verify-attestation \
  --report attestation-web01.json \
  --pubkey vm-attest-001.pub

Confidential Computing #

Confidential computing protects VM data even from a compromised hypervisor host. QuantaVirt supports AMD SEV, SEV-ES, SEV-SNP, and Intel TDX for hardware-enforced memory encryption and integrity protection.

# Enable SEV-SNP on a VM
"security": {
  "type": "sev-snp",
  "policy": {
    "min_fw_version": "1.51",
    "debug": false,
    "migrate": false,
    "smt_allowed": true
  }
}

# Enable TDX on a VM
"security": {
  "type": "tdx",
  "attributes": {
    "debug": false,
    "sept_ve_disable": true
  }
}

# Check confidential computing capability
quantavirt system cc-status
# AMD SEV:      Supported (EPYC 7003)
# AMD SEV-ES:   Supported
# AMD SEV-SNP:  Supported (firmware 1.51)
# Intel TDX:    Not available (AMD platform)
# Max VMs:      509 (SEV ASIDs available)

Memory Encryption #

Beyond hardware confidential computing, QuantaVirt provides software-level memory encryption using the PQC subsystem. This protects VM memory pages from cold-boot attacks, DMA attacks (when IOMMU is not available), and physical memory probing.

# VM config — enable PQC memory encryption
"memory": {
  "size": "4G",
  "encrypted": true
}

# Memory encryption is layered:
# 1. Hardware: SEV-SNP / TDX encrypts at the CPU level (if available)
# 2. Software: PQC subsystem encrypts EPT/NPT pages (supplemental)

Secure Boot Chain #

QuantaVirt implements a measured boot chain from firmware to hypervisor kernel. Each stage verifies the integrity of the next stage using ML-DSA signatures before transferring control.

/* Secure boot chain */

 UEFI Firmware (platform root of trust)
     │
     â–¼  Verify ML-DSA signature on bootloader
 QuantaVirt Bootloader (GRUB / systemd-boot UKI)
     │
     â–¼  Verify ML-DSA signature on hypervisor kernel
 QuantaVirt Kernel
     │
     â–¼  Verify ML-DSA signature on PQC subsystem module
 PQC Subsystem + QUAC 100 Driver
     │
     â–¼  QUAC 100 firmware integrity check
 QUAC 100 Hardware Initialization
     │
     â–¼  Measure VM firmware before launch
 VM Launch (with attestation)

Security Auditing #

# View security audit log
quantavirt audit list --last 24h
# TIMESTAMP              EVENT                       SUBJECT        DETAIL
# 2026-01-15T10:00:01Z   pqc.key.generated           storage-master ML-KEM-768, QUAC 100
# 2026-01-15T10:05:30Z   vm.attestation.generated    web-01         ML-DSA-65, VALID
# 2026-01-15T10:10:00Z   storage.encrypted           classified     ML-KEM-768 / AES-256-GCM
# 2026-01-15T14:00:00Z   network.tunnel.established  pqc-overlay    ML-KEM-768 → 192.168.1.20
# 2026-01-15T15:00:00Z   network.tunnel.rekeyed      pqc-overlay    session key rotated

# Export audit log (for SIEM integration)
quantavirt audit export --format json --output /var/log/quantavirt-audit.json

# Syslog forwarding
# /etc/quantavirt/quantavirt.conf
[audit]
  enabled = true
  syslog = true
  syslog_facility = "auth"
  file = "/var/log/quantavirt/audit.log"

Compliance & Standards #