Inspection and deconfliction of published virtual machine templates´ remnant data for improved assurance in public Clouds

A common feature provided by any Cloud Service Provider (CSP) is their library of pre-built and ready to use operating system images that contribute to the overall flexibility, usability and cost savings advantages of Cloud Computing. The pedigree of CSP library images can vary, and some concerns have been raised about confidentiality of user historical data via publicly available images which have not been prepared in a manner consistent with recommended security best practices. In this paper we explore data remanence security concerns associated with virtual machine (VM) instances templates, a popular technique for configuring VMs for new users. We show how forensics tools can be used to check for data remanence and how to appropriately deconflict findings for improved assurance.