The new security features in Windows Server 2022.
This is what we're going to cover.
Secured‑core servers, which offer a hardware solution to security,
virtualization‑based security, or VBS,
and what secure connectivity features are new to Windows Server 2022.
Let's begin by looking at a Secured‑core server.
Secured‑core servers in Windows Server 2022.
Secured‑core servers are basically where you have your OEM
partner certify their hardware in order to meet this
criteria to be a Secured‑core server.
These servers use the hardware, firmware,
and driver capabilities to enable the advanced Windows Server security features.
This is very useful against sophisticated attacks.
A lot of the attacks are coming these days on the firmware,
on the kernel, which the operating system can't necessarily get to,
so all of the software that you have on the operating system can't
really see the firmware and can't really see the kernel.
So this is a protection against that.
Some more details.
This involves something called the hardware‑based root of trust.
This is the reason you need the TPM and Windows Server 2022.
This provides a secure store for the sensitive keys and the
sensitive data that you have on your machine.
Basically, if you're familiar with BitLocker,
this uses the same capabilities that BitLocker uses.
We're trying to achieve something called attestation,
meaning that something is accountable all the way from the launch of the
machine to the launch of the hypervisor and secure kernel.
The operating system, hypervisor, and secure kernel binaries,
they have to be signed by Microsoft.
And what we're trying to do here is verify the trustworthiness of
a platform and the integrity of the binaries.
This will enable security paradigms such as the Azure confidential
computing and the intelligent edge protection,
all in order to protect the firmware.
This can use the Dynamic Root of Trust Measurement technology.
And what you're doing here is you're measuring all the different
things that went in as the kernel is loading.
And it can check that to make sure that,
wow,
something got loaded that you didn't want to get loaded that would
probably be some kind of attack on your firmware.
This also protects the dynamic memory access from an
invasive installation of a virus,
and it isolates the security‑critical hypervisor from attacks.
So with all these protections, what we're looking at is to certify the hardware,
the firmware,
and the kernel in order to have it certified as a Secured‑core server.
So that's a look at Secured‑core server in Windows Server 2022.
Up next, we'll examine another security feature called virtualization‑based security.