ETD

• amd
• cybersecurity
• emulation
• emulazione
• qemu
• sev-es
• virtualization
• virtualizzazione

This thesis presents the work carried out as part of the Master's Degree in Cybersecurity, with the objective of extending QEMU to emulate AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization – Encrypted State (SEV-ES) in TCG mode. The project aims to enable the development, debugging and testing of software designed for confidential computing environments without requiring dedicated AMD hardware supporting SEV-ES. The implementation required an in-depth analysis of QEMU's architecture, SEV-ES technology, and the interaction between firmware, the hypervisor, and the guest operating system. The development process followed a software engineering approach, including the analysis of the existing code base, the design and implementation of new functionalities, their validation, and their integration into the existing system while preserving maintainability and extensibility. This document describes the technological background of the project, the design decisions that guided the implementation, the modifications introduced into the QEMU source code, and the methodologies adopted to validate the correctness of the developed solution. It also serves as a technical reference for the architecture and functionality of the implemented SEV-ES emulation.