Particular embodiments described herein provide for receiving a request from a first cloud component in a cloud network, wherein the request is to access a key and the key allows the first cloud component to access located trusted execution environment of a second cloud component in the cloud network and allow the request on the condition that the first cloud component is authenticated. A more specific example includes determining a type for the first cloud component, and comparing the determined type of the first cloud component with a component type associated with the key. The example may also include blocking the request if the determined type of the first cloud component does not match the component type associated with the key.