CleanNode: Secure Isolation and Sanitization for Multi-Tenant HPC Systems

As high-performance computing (HPC) systems increasingly support multi-tenant workloads, ensuring strong isolation and data privacy between users has become a critical cybersecurity challenge. CleanNode addresses this need through a comprehensive, performance-aware security framework.

Developed in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy and the University of Minnesota, CleanNode strengthens isolation between HPC users by automatically containerizing jobs and enforcing strict boundaries around user data throughout execution.

A core component of CleanNode is the secure and efficient sanitization of compute nodes after job completion. Residual data from memory, storage devices, network interface cards (NICs), and GPUs is thoroughly cleared and verified before the node is reassigned, ensuring no data leakage across workloads.

By combining automated containerization, verified sanitization, and minimal performance overhead, CleanNode enables secure reuse of HPC resources while preserving the high throughput and efficiency demanded by large-scale scientific and industrial computing.