Patent ID: 8607067

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for attesting to one or more properties of a virtual machine instance, comprising: under the control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions, detecting a provisioning event of a virtual machine instance, the provisioning event generated as part of a workflow including: allocating hardware resources to the virtual machine instance; and sending one or more messages with respect to virtual machine instance component provisioning; in response to detecting the provisioning event, determining one or more attributes for the virtual machine instance, including a type of provisioning event detected; generating a document incorporating the determined one or more attributes, including the type of provisioning event detected; cryptographically signing the generated document, including at least: generating, using a public key cryptography signature scheme, a signature for the document; making the cryptographically signed document available to the virtual machine instance includes making the generated signature available to the virtual machine instance; and enabling the virtual machine instance to provide the cryptographically signed document including enabling the virtual machine instance to provide the generated signature with the cryptographically signed document; providing access to the cryptographically signed document to the virtual machine instance; and enabling the virtual machine instance to provide the cryptographically signed document to one or more services that are operable to take one or more actions based at least in part on the determined one or more attributes in the provided cryptographically signed document.