EnclaveSim:A Micro-architectural Simulator with Enclave Support

Abstract

Intel SGX preserves the confidentiality and integrity aspects of data and code through enclaves (that reside in the trusted part of the memory) and protects it from different layers of the malicious system software, including the OS. Micro-architecture research in the presence of SGX is an interesting theme to explore as SGX does not mitigate timing side-channel attacks at various levels of a memory hierarchy and causes significant performance slowdown. The research community extensively uses existing benchmark suites like SPEC CPU 2017 for evaluating new proposals on the various aspects of micro-architecture research. As there is no benchmark suite available for micro-architecture research with SGX, state-of-the-art micro-architecture research in the presence of SGX assumes an entire SPEC benchmark is running inside an enclave. In reality, Intel SGX assumes that a major portion of the application's code and data do not require security, and only a tiny fraction of it needs security via an enclave. To the best of our knowledge, there are no open-source micro-architectural simulators that can simulate Intel SGX fairly, for micro-architecture research. In this regard, we propose EnclaveSim, a detailed yet flexible, trace-based micro-architectural simulator that simulates trusted code execution through enclaves.