Code Transparency

For code transparency to be meaningful, the measured hash must be deterministic and reproducible. This requires a strictly controlled build process where compiling the same source code on different machines or at different times produces an identical binary. Achieving this involves:

• Fixed dependency versions pinned to exact hashes
• Deterministic compiler flags and link ordering
• Eliminating build-time metadata like timestamps and file paths Without reproducible builds, independent auditors cannot verify that a published source repository corresponds to the attested binary, breaking the chain of trust.

The cryptographic process by which a TEE proves its identity and integrity to a remote party. An attestation report is a digitally signed document containing a measurement of the enclave's memory, the platform's hardware identity, and a hash of the code running inside it. This is the root mechanism that makes code transparency actionable—without attestation, a relying party cannot verify what code is executing. The report is signed by a hardware-rooted key that chains back to the CPU manufacturer.

A secure area within a main processor that guarantees the confidentiality and integrity of code and data loaded inside it. A TEE isolates sensitive computation from the host OS, hypervisor, and any process with higher privilege levels. Key implementations include:

• Intel SGX: Application-level enclaves with fine-grained memory encryption
• AMD SEV-SNP: Full VM encryption with integrity protection
• AWS Nitro Enclaves: Isolated compute with no persistent storage or external networking by default

A protocol that enables a client to verify the authenticity and integrity of a software stack running inside a TEE on an untrusted host. The process involves:

• The TEE generating a cryptographic measurement of its initial state
• The hardware signing this measurement with a device-specific attestation key
• The client verifying the signature against the manufacturer's certificate chain This establishes a hardware-rooted chain of trust that extends from the silicon to the application layer.

A TEE-specific operation that encrypts data and binds it to the exact enclave identity and platform that generated it. Sealed data can only be decrypted by the same enclave on the same hardware, ensuring that secrets persist securely across enclave restarts. In the context of code transparency, sealing allows an enclave to securely store state after attestation, knowing that only a verified instance of the expected code can ever access the unsealed plaintext.

The set of all hardware, firmware, and software components that are critical to a system's security. A vulnerability in any TCB component can compromise the entire system's guarantees. For confidential computing, minimizing the TCB is a primary design goal—the smaller the TCB, the smaller the attack surface. Code transparency helps relying parties verify that the TCB they depend on matches their expectations by publishing the exact hash of the trusted code.

The application of confidential computing principles to artificial intelligence workloads, ensuring that model weights, training data, and inference queries remain encrypted and isolated during computation. This protects intellectual property and sensitive data from cloud providers, insider threats, and malicious co-tenants. Code transparency is essential here—clients must verify that the AI inference code running inside the TEE has not been tampered with to exfiltrate data or substitute a weaker model.