[FOSDEM] Call for Participation : Confidential computing devroom 2024

[Fritz Alder]

The web version of this CFP is available at the following URL:
https://falder.org/fosdem24-cfp

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Following the success of [the last years' 
editions](https://archive.fosdem.org/2023/schedule/track/confidential_computing/), 
we are for the 5th time organizing a devroom devoted to the emerging 
open source ecosystem around *hardware-based Trusted Execution 
Environments (TEEs)* which nowadays is also known under the term 
*confidential computing* (CC).

Confidential computing leverages hardware-based Trusted Execution 
Environments (TEEs) in order to protect and secure data in-use. This 
devroom is devoted to this emerging free and open-source ecosystem 
around TEEs that allow to directly isolate and attest trusted "enclave" 
software components running on top of a potentially compromised 
operating system. Over the last years, all major processor vendors have 
developed some form of TEE support, e.g., Intel's Software Guard 
Extensions (SGX) and Trust Domain Extensions (TDX), ARM's TrustZone, 
Morello, and confidential computing Architecture (CCA), AMD's Secure 
Encrypted Virtualization (SEV) and SEV-ES/SEV-SNP extensions, and IBM's 
Z and Protected Execution Facility (PEF).

Hence, with today's mainstream consumer hardware being increasingly 
shipped with these advanced trusted computing technologies, this devroom 
wants to foster discussion on the much-needed free and open-source TEE 
ecosystem amongst industry players, academics, enthusiasts, hobbyists, 
and project maintainers.


## Desirable topics

The devroom's topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

* Open-source confidential computing:
   * An introduction to the existing solutions and the use cases they 
cover, etc
* Programming frameworks for TEEs: how to develop free and open-source 
software that can run inside enclaves (e.g., library OSs, SDKs, Linux 
kernel support, etc.).
* Confidential computing deployment: Challenges and benefits.
* Use cases and applications on top of TEEs such as applying 
confidential computing to the Cloud Native space.
* Compiler and language support for emerging trusted hardware extensions.
* Open-source enclave processor designs (e.g., RISC-V TEEs).
* Attestation, also across different technologies
* Existing technologies:
   * What do they have in common, how do they differ?
   * Which confidential computing use cases can they cover?
* Upcoming technologies:
   * TEEs on accelerators (GPUs, NPUs, DPUs, etc)
   * Interaction between existing and upcoming technologies
   * Opportunities
* Vision: future TEEs (what is missed, proposals, wishes, discussions).
* TEE-specific attacks and defenses: reverse engineering, side-channels, 
vulnerabilities, exploits.

## This year's changes

In 2024, we will fully resume to a physical-only devroom.


## Key dates

* Submission deadline: 01 December 2023
* Announcement of selected talks: 12 December 2023
* FOSDEM dates 3 & 4 February 2024
* Confidential computing devroom date: February 4, 2024, 1pm-5pm

## Submit a talk proposal

Submissions are required to proceed through the [new and updated FOSDEM 
2024 system](https://pretalx.fosdem.org/fosdem-2024/cfp).

Your submission must include the following information:

* Proposal title of your talk: please be descriptive, as the audience 
will have to choose to attend your talk out of a listing with ~500 talks 
from other projects at FOSDEM.
* Select "Confidential computing devroom" as the track.
* A longer description if you wish to do so.
* A short abstract of one paragraph.
* Submission notes to let us know of specifics to your talk.
* Additional speakers if you want to add them.
* FOSDEM requires you to fill in which open-source license you use and 
to provide links to your source code. *All talks at FOSDEM **must** be 
about free and open-source software, so please make it clear to the 
organizers by providing a public URL to the source code of the relevant 
project(s).In case the URL is not yet public, please indicate so and 
explicitly clarify your commitment to have the code available the latest 
at the time of the devroom.*
* Information about yourself.
* Please note that we do not allow remote speakers this year anymore. 
All speakers need to be at FOSDEM in-person.

We target a block of **20-40 minutes** per talk (*including* Q&A) and we 
will inform you about the final length of your talks when confirming the 
proposals.

If you wish to only give a short talk, you can let us know in the 
submission notes. We leave the option open to have several **10 minute** 
talks for rapid-fire ideas and discussion points. Let us know in the 
submission notes if you plan your submission to be more interactive so 
that we can plan in more time for discussion after your talk.

## Contact and organizers

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Fritz Alder 
(fritz.alder.work at gmail.com) or to any of the below co-organizers.

* Organizers: Fritz Alder (fritz.alder.work at gmail.com), Fabiano Fidencio 
(fabiano.fidencio at intel.com), Jo Van Bulck (jo.vanbulck at cs.kuleuven.be)
* Devroom URL on the FOSDEM website: 
<https://fosdem.org/2024/schedule/track/confidential-computing/>