Patent attributes
Embodiments of the present disclosure include systems and methods for encrypting a virtual machine image and accessing an encrypted virtual machine image. According to some embodiments an encryption module can encrypt a virtual machine image and place an encryption boot loader. The encryption boot loader may be extracted from the encrypted virtual machine image, be transmitted to, and stored at a key storage system. Upon a request to boot an operating system associated with the encrypted virtual machine image, a pre-boot execution environment may communicate with an image service to retrieve the encryption boot loader from the remote key storage system. The virtual machine image may therefore be decrypted suing the encryption boot loader, which may allow booting of the operating system.
