US Patent 11200335 Secure in-memory database in container

In an example embodiment, a hardware mechanism for protecting user-level software from privileged system software is leveraged to protect in-memory databases in container implementations in a cloud. This hardware mechanism takes the form of an enclave. An enclave is a portion of a CPU that shields application code and data from accesses by other software, including higher-privileged software. Memory pages belonging to an enclave reside in the enclave page cache (EPC), which cannot be accessed by code outside of the enclave. This helps ensure that (1) applications built on top of in-memory database are securely trusted, (2) and a trusted path architecture is provided for enclaves allowing in-memory databases to run securely on top of untrusted cloud platform.