COMPUTER SECURITY MANAGEMENT, SUCH AS IN A VIRTUAL MACHINE OR HARDENED OPERATING SYSTEM
TECHNICAL FIELD
(0001) The described technology relates generally to maintaining the security and
integrity of computer operating systems
BACKGROUND
[0002] When software that has been designed specifically to damage or disrupt a
system (e g , malicious software or "malware") invades a computer system, the mtegnty of the computer's operating system, and hence the entire computer system, is greatly compromised While the security concerns and requirements of computer users range widely, given the rise of virus, worm, and Trojan threats, most computer users are concerned with the integrity of their computers' critical infrastructure components such as operating system processes, memory processes, etc
[0003] Some types of malware use the operating system's privileged operations to
attack the computer Such pnvileged operations typically consist of instructions or sets of instructions that are accessible only by a privileged user or process For example, when malware is somehow able to access one or more of these privileged operations, this may result in the deletion or corruption of operating system files, the attack of m-memory operating system components, the deletion of user files, and many other harmful possibilities In some cases, even non-malicious processes may damage a computer system through inadvertent behavior that accesses privileged operations More generally, almost any process may be able to obtain access to privileged operations by simply assuming the identity of a privileged user
[0004] Normally, operating systems provide an infrastructure for hosting processes
and providing system services to those processes Operating systems typically provide basic secunty protections - such as enforcing access control and ownership rights over system resources For example, in normal operating system environments, protective security services such as host firewall, vulnerability assessment, patch detection, behavioral blocking, host or network intrusion detection, and antivirus technologies are all run as native applications in the operating system Despite these measures, the operating system is sometimes unable to accurately determine whether it has been attacked Specifically, once a piece of malicious code or other malware attacks a computer system and gams sufficient control (e g, administrator-level access), all further attempts by the operating system to determine whether it is under attack are no longer trustworthy because the mechanisms for such attempts may also be corrupted This is because the malicious code could effectively modify any of the in-memory or on-disk structures used by the operating system or the applications used to protect it
[0005] One approach to protecting a computer system and its operating system
involves installing a set of security applications such as antivirus software, personal firewalls, and intrusion detection systems In systems with multiple computer systems, such as a computer network or a cluster of computer systems deployed in an array, each individual computer system runs its own set of security applications This is because each computer system in the network or array is a physically separate entity with its own network attachment, its own central processing unit(s), its own instance of an operating system, etc While such security applications may be installed on each computer system to prevent the computer system and its operating system from being compromised, such security applications may too fail to protect the computer system because, just like any of the other applications running on the computer system, they are also vulnerable to attack
[0006] In another approach to protecting a computer system and its operating
system aspects of the computer system, such as the memory, are protected by isolating aspects of the computer system
SUMMARY
[0007] The computer security techniques described herein provide various security
features, including the use of a single security process (or set of security processes) to monitor, protect, and repair multiple logically isolated virtual machines running on a host system In some embodiments, the security techniques provide security to one or more self-contained operating environment instances executing on a computer The secunty techniques may include implementing a security application that may be controlled by a supervisory process The security application may monitor one or more virtual machines This monitoring may be done using various techniques, including offline scanning of the virtual machines by the security application, implementing an agent secunty process running on each of the virtual machines, etc
[oooBi 'n some embodiments, both the set of security applications and the
supervisory process may operate on a host system of the computer, which may also provide a platform for execution of the one or more self-contained operating environments The security techniques may protect processes running in the one or more self-contained operating environments and processes running on the computer outside of the self-contained operating environments
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0009] Figure 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a system for
implementing security techniques in one embodiment
[ooio] Figure 2 is a block diagram showing an example of offline scanning of
virtual machines in the system of Figure 1
[0011] Figure 3A is a block diagram showing an alternative example of offline
scanning of the virtual machines in the system of Figure 1
[0012] Figure 3B is a block diagram showing another example of scanning of the
virtual machines in the system of Figure 1
[0013] Figure 3C is a block diagram showing yet another example of scanning of
the virtual machines in the system of Figure 1
[0014] Figure 4 is a flow diagram showing a routine performed by a supervisory
process that monitors an operating system in the system of Figure 1
10015] Figure 5 is a flow diagram showing an example of a security monitoring
routine that monitors the virtual machines in the system of Figure 1 using periodic
scanning
[0016] Figure 6 is a flow diagram showing a second example of a security
monitoring routine that monitors the virtual machines in the system of Figure 1
using virtual machine structure mounting
[0017] Figure 7 is a flow diagram showing a third example of a security monitoring
routine that monitors the virtual machines in the system of Figure 1 without using
virtual machine structure mounting
[0018] Figure 8 is a flow diagram showing a second example of a security
monitoring routine that monitors the virtual machines in the system of Figure 1
using an agent process running in the virtual machine
[0019] In the drawings, the same reference numbers identify identical or
substantially similar elements or acts To facilitate the discussion of any particular
element or act, the most significant digit or digits in a reference number refer to the
figure number in which that element is first introduced (e g , element 204 is first
introduced and discussed with respect to Figure 2)
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0020] The invention will now be described with respect to various embodiments
The following description provides specific details for a thorough understanding of, and enabling description for, these embodiments of the invention However, one skilled in the art will understand that the invention may be practiced without these details In other instances, well-known structures and functions have not been shown or described in detail to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the description of the embodiments of the invention
[0021] It is intended that the terminology used in the description presented be
interpreted in its broadest reasonable manner, even though it is being used in conjunction with a detailed description of certain specific embodiments of the
invention Certain terms may even be emphasized below, however, any terminology intended to be interpreted in any restricted manner will be overtly and specifically defined as such in this Detailed Description section
Overview
[0022] The computer security techniques described herein provide various security
features, including the use of a single security process (or set of security processes) to monitor, protect, and repair multiple logically isolated virtual machines running on a host system
(0023) In some embodiments, a host system, which executes on a physical
machine, provides a virtual machine on which an operating system and applications can execute While many processes may execute on the virtual machine, in general, the operating system and applications executing on the virtual machine cannot access resources (e g , memory and devices) except as permitted by the host system that provides the virtual machine or as specified by a quest that has been assigned to a virtual machine
[0024] If a virtual machine executes malware, any damage is confined to the
operating system, applications, and accessible resources of the virtual machine In this way, the computer is substantially protected from the effects of malware that executes on the virtual machine
[0025] In some embodiments, the host system may prevent the operating system
and applications executing on the virtual machines from performing privileged operations that can cause undesirable changes to the resources or operating system of the physical machine For example, the operating system executing on the virtual machine may be given administrative privileges within the virtual machine, but not within the physical machine
[0026] In some embodiments, the host system implements proactive security
processes Examples of such security processes include host firewall monitors, vulnerability assessment monitors, patch detection monitors, behavioral blocking monitors, host or network intrusion detection monitors, and antivirus technologies In general the security processes are configured to enhance the security of the virtual machines, the host system and, subsequently the physical machine
(0027] In some embodiments, the security processes are embodied as or
controlled by a supervisory process running on the host system The supervisory process may facilitate or provide the security processes with some level of access and visibility to components of the virtual machines, including virtual memory, virtual disk, virtual network adaptors, virtual drivers, etc (eg, in the form of m-memory data structures or object models) For example, the supervisory process may allow the security process to scan a data structure in memory or stored on disk corresponding to a virtual machine's virtual hard disk for signs of malware or security breaches In addition (or alternatively), when provided an object model that is supported by the host system, the supervisory process can facilitate returning information about the state of the virtual machine (such as memory state or communication state) to the host system In general, because the host system and supervisory process provide some level of isolation, the security processes may supervise and monitor the security of the virtual machines, while still remaining inaccessible to harmful programs executing in these virtual machines In this way, the security processes are protected from tampering or defeat by the programs that they are tasked with monitoring
(0028] In some embodiments, the security processes may be used to monitor and
repair a virtual machine that is in a saved state where the execution of the virtual machine monitor has been halted and where all information pertaining to the virtual machine's memory, device and CPU state has been written out to a physical file The security processes may also be used to monitor and repair a virtual machine that is in a paused state, which is typically invoked by a virtual machine manager During the paused state, the virtual machine ceases execution, but remains ready to resume a next instruction and processing In either the paused or saved state scenario the virtual operating system inside of the virtual machine has no knowledge of the state change Likewise, the security processes may have the ability to scan and repair or clean a virtual machine before it is loaded into the host system
[00291 In some embodiments the host system can mount a virtual machine's hard
disk as if it were a physical disk and then scan the virtual hard disk on a block level
(like any other mounted disk) For example, the host system may employ a disk driver that can be loaded into the physical machine's operating system This disk driver may then interpret the virtual hard disk and present it to the host system as a locally attached disk
[0030] Another approach to monitoring the virtual machines is to run an "agent"
security process in each virtual machine In this approach, the agent security process is associated with a primary security process on the host system The agent security process opens a communication channel to the primary security process and assists in discovery of and recovery from an attack of the virtual machine While this scenario may involve a risk of the agent security process being compromised during an attack, the agent may still have an external recovery option available to it via the primary security process In some scenarios (e g , scenarios involving the use of a hypervisor), the agent may run in a different virtual machine than the virtual machine it is actually monitoring
[0031J In some embodiments, the host system can take periodic snapshots of the
entire state of each virtual machine Theoretically, this snap-shotting could be performed instantaneously, with minor performance overhead However, many variations of this technique could be possible If a security process detects an anomaly within the virtual machine (e g , malware overwnting the operating system or malware that manifests itself as m-memory program), then the host system can restore the state of the virtual machine to that of the latest snapshot, take action to prevent the recurrence of the anomaly, and restart the virtual machine
II Representative System
10032] Figures 1-5 and the following discussion provide a brief, general description
of a suitable environment in which the invention can be implemented Although not required, aspects of the invention are described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as routines executed by a general-purpose computer (e g , a server computer, wireless device, or personal/laptop computer) Those skilled in the relevant art will appreciate that the invention can be practiced with other communications, data processing, or computer system configurations, including Internet appliances, hand-held devices (including personal digital
assistants (PDAs)), wearable computers, all manner of cellular or mobile phones, embedded computers (including those coupled to vehicles), multi-processor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, set-top boxes, network PCs, mini-computers, mainframe computers, and the like
[0033] Aspects of the invention can be embodied in a special purpose computer or
data processor that is specifically programmed, configured, or constructed to perform one or more of the computer-executable instructions explained in detail herein Aspects of the invention can also be practiced in distnbuted computing environments where tasks or modules are performed by remote processing devices, which are linked through a communication network In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices
(0034] Aspects of the invention may be stored or distributed on computer-readable
media, including magnetically or optically readable computer disks, as microcode on semiconductor memory, nanotechnology memory, organic or optical memory, or other portable data storage media Indeed, computer-implemented instructions, data structures, screen displays, and other data under aspects of the invention may be distributed over the Internet or over other networks (including wireless networks), on a propagated signal on a propagation medium (eg, an electromagnetic wave(s), a sound wave, etc) over a period of time, or may be provided on any analog or digital network (packet switched, circuit switched, or other scheme) Those skilled in the relevant art will recognize that portions of the invention reside on a server computer, while corresponding portions reside on a client computer, such as a mobile device
(0035] Referring to Figure 1, a computer system (physical machine) 100 on which
the computer security techniques can be implemented provides vanous components These components include a host system 102 configured to run on the computer system 100 in addition to, in combination with, or in place of a standard or general purpose computer operating system 104 In some embodiments, the host system 102 may be configured so that it is inaccessible to everything except native and/or privileged supervisory and security functions The
host system 102 may interface with one or more computer resources, such as a processor 106 with a memory management unit (MMU) 108, a disk 110, a memory 112, a communications subsystem 114, and one or more system drivers 116
[0036] In some embodiments, the one or more virtual machines 118 run under the
control of the host system 102 and may be subordinate to the host system 102 The virtual machines 118 may each be comprised of a collection of components that facilitate the virtualization or emulation of a processor and other machine resources For example, as shown in the illustrated embodiment, each of the virtual machines 118 has access to a set of emulated resources, including virtual network adapters 119, virtual memory 120 (which may consist of an allocated portion of the physical machine's memory 112), virtual disk 122, and one or more virtual drivers 124 that each represent a virtual instance of non-virtual system drivers 116 A virtual operating system instance 126 runs on each of these virtual machines 118 In some embodiments, the virtual operating system instance 126 may be a full or partial copy of the physical machine's operating system 104
[0037J In general, the virtual machines 118 may depend on the MMU 108 to
provide vanous page-level protections In general, applications or processes 129 running on the each of the virtual machines use only the emulated resources (e g, virtual memory 120, virtual disk 122, virtual drivers 124, operating system 126, etc) of their respective virtual machine Such applications or processes 129 are sometimes referred to as "guest" code The emulated resources are generally assumed to be trustworthy in the sense that they honor standard protection mechanisms on the host system 102 and do not expose any host system user data to the guest code unless explicitly instructed to do so
[0038] In some embodiments, the emulated resources may exchange data
between the host system 102 and the guest code running on the virtual machine 118 using several integration techniques, such as I/O port accesses, memory-mapped registers, direct memory access (DMA), interrupts, etc Other data exchange techniques include clipboard sharing, file drag and drop, time synchronization, etc To support such data exchange techniques, the virtual machines 118 may provide several facilities including asynchronous guest events,
synchronous host calls, data transfer between the guest code and host system 102, an integration service registry, etc
[0039] The virtual machines 118 may be created or initiated on the host system
102 using any of several possible techniques For example, in one embodiment, the host system 102 may create and launch an instance of a virtual machine and configure parameters for the virtual machine at creation time In some embodiments, the host system 102 may locate an existing virtual machine image on disk 110 (perhaps on a share) and load that image as a new virtual machine instance In some cases, this loading is referred to as "importing" a virtual machine instance and is in some ways analogous to an "import" function that brings in data from one application into another
[0040] In some embodiments, a set of one or more supervisory processes 128
runs on the host system 102 In some embodiments, the one or more supervisory processes 128 may have full or partial access to the virtual operating system instances 126, and can provide a security service to each of the virtual machines 118 In some embodiments, the supervisory processes 128 may also handle activities such as digital rights management (DRM) and licensing control Because this configuration provides that any malware running on the virtual machines 118 cannot access resources outside each virtual machine, the supervisory process 128 is generally safe from corruption by the malware
[0041] In some embodiments, the one or more supervisory processes 128 control
a set of security applications (e g , antivirus software, personal firewalls, intrusion detection systems, etc) that may protect and/or supervise all of the virtual machines 118 on the host system 102 For example, the one or more supervisory processes may facilitate offline scanning of multiple virtual machines by the set of security applications Offline scanning may include configuring the set of security applications to be aware of each of the virtual machines' virtual resources as they reside as virtual objects on the computer system {physical machine) In this way, the set of security applications can examine (scan) those virtual resources from outside the virtual machine (e g , using a knowledge of the internal format of the virtual machine data structures)
[0042] Although the terms "security application" and "supervisory process" are
used herein, such concepts are not limited to applications or processes Rather, any utility or facility that is configured to provide services to a virtual machine and/or its resources could be implemented on the host system to achieve the desired results without departing from the scope of the invention Some examples of such a utility or facility include an anti-adware utility, an anti-spyware utility, a disk defragmenter, etc
[0043] The offline scanning of virtuaf machine resources may take pface white the
virtual machines are running or dormant (eg, in a paused or saved state) For example, in the situation where a virtual machine may be created by locating and loading an existing virtual machine image onto the host system 102, the offline scanning (and any needed cleaning or repairs) could occur before the virtual machine instance is "imported" Virtual machine resources that can be scanned in a paused or saved state include virtual hard disks, virtual machine memory contents, virtual communications port buffer structures, etc In some implementations, it may not be possible to access the memory of a paused virtual machine However, the virtual machine memory may still be accessible while the virtual machine is in a saved state or via a snapshot of a virtual machine
[0044] Referring to Figure 2, one example of an offline scanning configuration 200
is shown, illustrating various components of Figure 1 In this configuration, a security application 202 and an optional supervisory process 128 reside on the host system 102 The security application 202, which may be at least partially controlled by the supervisory process 128, views the virtual machine 118's resources as a data structure or set of data structures that can be scanned for signs of security breaches To allow it to access the virtual machine 118's resources m raw form and accurately detect secunty breaches, the security application 202 may rely on information about the semantics and configuration of data structures associated with the resources In some embodiments, this information is updated to reflect any intentional changes in the semantics and configuration of the data structures
[0045] For example, the security application 202 of Figure 2 may be an antivirus
scanning engine that scans the virtual machine 118 to determine if it is infected with one or more known viruses or worms To begin the scanning process, the antivirus engine 202 loads a current signature definition file into its program memory For example, the signature definition file may define the semantics and configuration of the virtual machine's virtual hard disk structure, thus providing a reference point for the antivirus engine as it scans the virtual machine's hard disk in its current state
[0046] Next, the antivirus engine directs its scanning to read a portion of the
physical machine's hard disk that correlates to the virtual machine's virtual hard disk In this way, the antivirus engine effectively reads the contents of the virtual hard disk, and compares its content (e g , a content object) with its list of known malicious content, using methods and techniques employed by those who are skilled in the art of detecting malicious software For the purposes of this example, a content object within the virtual hard disk could be a file, or another object manipulated by the operating system such as a key from the Microsoft Windows System Registry, or any other object on disk that could be identified as part of an instance of malicious or undesirable software Upon discovery of malicious software, the antivirus engine may attempt to remove any offending objects, or remove an infection that is located within an object
[0047] Figure 3A provides a second example of an offline scanning configuration
300 In this configuration, a virtual machine object interface 302 that is supported by the supervisory process 128 provides a uniform interface through which a security application 304 can access resources of the virtual machines The virtual machine object interface 302 may map virtual machine data structures that may vary from virtual machine to virtual machine to a common format that can be accessed by the security application 304 for scanning and other activities Thus, the security application 304 need only be developed to access this common format and not every format variation that a virtual machine may have For example, the host system 102 may discover information about the state of the virtual machines 118 (such as disk state, memory state or communication state) so that a security
application 304 can monitor them, looking for security breaches or other problems
In addition, the virtual machine object interface 302 may provide functionality that
can be used by multiple security applications For example, the virtual machine
object interface 302 may provide a function that allows another secunty process to
scan the virtual machine's virtual network adaptors for incoming network packets
which have malicious content, such as worm payloads
[0048] This configuration provides a designer of the virtual machine and a designer
of the security application with some flexibility For example, the designer of the virtual machine can alter data structures of the virtual machine without consequence to the designer of the security application Thus, the security application 304 need only be developed to access this common format and not every format variation that a virtual machine may have
In some embodiments, the offline scanning technique facilitates the synchronization of the virtual machine's current state with what the security application perceives as the virtual machine's current state, thus providing more accurate and consistent scanning capabilities This synchronization may be useful in the case where the virtual machine's states are changing rapidly
Referring to Figure 3B, one way that this synchronization can be achieved
is by running an agent process 322 that provides a near-real time self-consistent
view of the virtual machine The agent process 322, which may run on the virtual
machine 118, can then export this view of the virtual machine to the virtual
machine object interface 302, which can then provide appropriate information to
the supervisory process and/or security application In some embodiments, the
agent process 322 may provide an application programming interface (API) for use
by the virtual machine object interface 302 (Alternatively, the security application
may provide a similar API for use by the virtual machine object interface 302 )
[0049J An alternative way that this synchronization can be achieved is to have the
virtual machine 118 create constant snapshots of its state and store these snapshots in memory or on disk While such snapshots may be a few seconds "stale," they will nonetheless be self-consistent
[00501 Referring to Figure 3C, an alternative technique for providing security
scanning of the virtual machines is a system 330 configured so that a security application 336 and supervisory process 334 are running on a designated virtual machine 332 (instead of directly on the host system 102) The secunty application 336 and supervisory process 334 can then monitor and/or scan the other virtual machines 118 to detect problems In this way, the designated virtual machine 332 (which may be dedicated to providing secunty monitoring) can remain protected from attack
III System Flows
[0051] Figures 4 through 8 are representative flow diagrams that show processes
that occur within the system of Figure 1 These flow diagrams do not show all functions or exchanges of data but, instead, provide an understanding of commands and data exchanged under the system Those skilled in the relevant art will recognize that some functions or exchanges of commands and data may be repeated, varied, omitted, or supplemented, and other aspects not shown may be readily implemented
[0052] Referring to Figure 4, a supervisory routine 400 performed, for example, by
the supervisory process of Figure 1, may run on (or off) the host system to monitor, modify, and/or configure processes or virtual operating systems running on the virtual machine Alternatively, the supervisory routine 400 may monitor, modify, and/or configure processes running on a hardened (but not virtual) operating system
[0053] At block 401, the routine 400 pauses the virtual machine operating system
At decision block 402, the routine 400 checks for changes that may result from damaging activities (e g, rogue processes) occurring within the virtual machine For example, the routine 400 may scan a portion of the virtual machine operating system kernel to check for problems As an alternative to (or in addition to) monitoring the virtual operating system kernel, the routine 400 may monitor other aspects connected with the virtual (or hardened) operating system For example, the routine 400 may monitor virtual address spaces, monitor emulated devices, monitoT an emulated hard dnve perform integrity verifications leg perform
checksums), check the integrity of files that reside on the virtual disk or in memory, etc
If, at decision block 402, the routine 400 does not detect changes that may result from damaging activities, the routine 400 proceeds to block 404 to restart the virtual operating system kernel before ending However, in some embodiments (not illustrated), the routine 400 may loop back to block 401 (after a time period elapses) to perform the pause and check steps again (unless the virtual operating system instance is terminated) if, however, at decision block 402, the routine 400 detects changes that may result from damaging activities, the routine proceeds to block 403, where the routine initiates containment actions Example containment actions may include activities such as suspending the guest operating system to do additional scanning, suspending select processes, cleaning the malware and reformatting the virtual operating system to repair any damage, shutting down the virtual machine after taking a "snapshot" so that the virtual machine environment can be more or less restored once the virtual machine is restarted, etc
(0054] Figure 5 provides an example of an offline scanning routine 500 facilitated
by a supervisory process that controls a set of security applications (e g , antivirus software) configured to perform offline scanning and repair of a virtual machine running on the host system At block 501 the routine 500 retrieves a period snapshot of the running virtual machine's current state At block 502, the routine scans the retrieved periodic snapshot At decision block 503, if a problem is detected, the routine proceeds to block 504, where the routine notifies the running virtual machine of the problem or, alternatively, instructs the virtual machine to roll back to a last saved state before the problem occurred If at decision block 503, the routine 500 does not detect a problem, the routine loops back to block 501 to retrieve the next periodic snapshot
[0055] Figure 6 provides an example of an offline scanning routine 600 facilitated
by a supervisory process that controls a set of security applications (e g , antivirus software) configured to perform offline scanning and repair of multiple virtual machines running on the host system For example, the routine 600 may be used
to detect and recover a virtual machine that has been disabled due to a malware infection At block 601, the routine 600 mounts the virtual machine's next structure or component onto the host system in a way that may be analogous to mounting a physical disk In this way, the structure or component is incorporated as part of computer's operating system instead of being treated as an outside scanned object The structure or component may be an emulated component as viewed from the perspective of the host system In some embodiments, the virtual machine's structures or components can be objectified such that the host system may provide an interface for the set of security applications to scan them For example, the virtual machine's memory may be objectified to scan for in-memory malware
[0056] At block 602, the set of security applications scans the virtual hard drive
structure (or m-memory structure, etc) At decision block 603, if the scanned structure is compromised, then the routine 600 continues at block 604, where the security applications repair the virtual hard drive structure (or tn-memory structure) If, however, at decision block 603, the scan component is not compromised, the routine proceeds to decision block 605
[0057] At decision block 605, if all the structures or components of the virtual
machine have been scanned, the routine ends Otherwise, the routine loops back to block 601 to mount the next virtual machine structure or component
100585 'n some embodiments, the routine 600 may be used in combination with
optimization techniques that track changes occurring between scans in each of the virtual machine hard drives In this way, the routine 600 may scan only changes since the last scan, thereby improving efficiency in scanning For example, an optimization routine could track changes in the virtual machine's hard drive on a block level Changes at the block level may then be mapped to changes at a file level for scanning purposes (as typical antivirus software scans at the file level) Alternatively, changes could be tracked by looking at modifications to master file table structures This may involve checkpoint storage of prior master file tables in the host system
[0059J Figure 7 provides an example of an offline scanning routine 700 facilitated
by a supervisory process that controls a set of security applications (e g , antivirus software) configured to perform offline scanning and repair of multiple virtual machines running on the host system For example, the routine 700 may be used to detect and recover a virtual machine that has been disabled due to a malware infection As opposed to the offline scanning routine of Figure 6, which mounts the virtual machine's structure or component prior to scanning, the routine of Figure 7 scans the structure or component externally At block 701, the routine 700 scans the virtual machine's next structure or component The structure or component may be an emulated component as viewed from the perspective of the host system In some embodiments, the virtual machine's structures or components can be objectified such that the host system may provide an interface for the set of security applications to scan them For example, the virtual machine's memory may be objectified to scan for in-memory malware
At decision block 702, if the scanned structure is compromised, then the routine 700 continues at block 703, where the security applications repair the virtual hard drive structure (or m-memory structure) If, however, at decision block 702, the scanned component is not compromised, the routine proceeds to decision block 704 At decision block 704, if all the structures or components of the virtual machine have been scanned, the routine ends Otherwise, the routine loops back to block 701 to mount the next virtual machine structure or component
Figure 8 is a flow diagram that provides a second example of an offline scanning routine 800 facilitated by a supervisory process that controls a set of security applications (e g, antivirus software) configured to perform offline scanning and repair of multiple virtual machines running on the host system In the routine 800, an agent process, such as the agent process 322 of Figure 3B, enables synchronization of the actual state of the virtual machine as it is being scanned, and the state of the virtual machine as perceived by the security applications
At block 801 the routine 800 establishes communication between the security application (such as the security application 304 of Figure 3B, "which runs
on the host system or on a virtual machine object interface) and the agent process via some inter-machine communications interface At block 802 the routine 800 establishes access to the virtual machine's memory For example, the agent process running on the host system may provide access to a virtual buffer that corresponds to the virtual machine's application memory The routine continues at block 803, where the security application scans the memory for evidence of a security problem For example, when the security application is an antivirus scanning engine, the antivirus scanning engine may scan the memory looking for code patterns that match signatures of known malicious software At decision block 804, if any structures or components of the virtual machine have been compromised, the routine 800 continues at block 805, where the security application and/or the agent process cleans the computer memory Alternatively, the security application could signal the agent process to take corrective action directed to the virtual machine If, however, at decision block 804, no structures or components have been compromised, then the routine ends
IV Conclusion
[ooeo] Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout the description
and the claims, the words "comprise," "comprising," and the like are to be construed in an inclusive sense as opposed to an exclusive or exhaustive sense, that is to say, in the sense of "including, but not limited to" Additionally, the words "herein," "above," "below" and words of similar import, when used in this application, shall refer to this application as a whole and not to any particular portions of this application When the claims use the word "or" in reference to a list of two or more items, that word covers all of the following interpretations of the word any of the items in the list, all of the items in the list, and any combination of the items in the list
[0061] The above detailed description of embodiments of the invention is not
intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed above While specific embodiments of, and examples for, the invention are described above for illustrative purposes various equivalent modifications are possible within the scope of the invention, as those skilled in the relevant art will
recognize For example, while processes or blocks are presented in a given order, alternative embodiments may perform routines having steps, or employ systems having blocks, in a different order, and some processes or blocks may be deleted, moved, added, subdivided, combined, and/or modified Each of these processes or blocks may be implemented in a vanety of different ways Also, while processes or blocks are at times shown as being performed in series, these processes or blocks may instead be performed in parallel, or may be performed at different times Where the context permits, words in the above Detailed Description using the singular or plural number may also include the plural or singular number, respectively, where the context permits
[0062] The teachings of the invention provided herein can be applied to other
systems, not necessarily the system described herein The elements and acts of the various embodiments described above can be combined to provide further embodiments
[0063] This application is related to commonly owned U S Patent Application No
, entitled "Method and System for a Self-healing Device" filed
December 21, 2004 All of the above patents and applications and other references, including any that may be listed in accompanying filing papers, are incorporated herein by reference Aspects of the invention can be modified, if necessary, to employ the systems, functions, and concepts of the various references described above to provide yet further embodiments of the invention
(0064) These and other changes can be made to One invention in light of the above
Detailed Description While the above description details certain embodiments of the invention and descnbes the best mode contemplated, no matter how detailed the above appears in text, the invention can be practiced in many ways As noted above, particular terminology used when describing certain features or aspects of the invention should not be taken to imply that the terminology is being re-defined herein to be restricted to any specific characteristics, features, or aspects of the invention with which that terminology is associated In general, the terms used in the following claims should not be construed to limit the invention to the specific embodiments disclosed in the specification, unless the above Detailed Description
section explicitly defines such terms Accordingly, the actual scope of the
invention encompasses not only the disclosed embodiments, but also all
equivalent ways of practicing or implementing the invention under the claims
[0065] While certain aspects of the invention are presented below in certain claim
forms, the inventors contemplate the vanous aspects of the invention in any number of claim forms For example, while only one aspect of the invention is recited as embodied in a computer-readable medium, other aspects may likewise be embodied in a computer-readable medium Accordingly, the inventors reserve the nght to add additional claims after filing the application to pursuSe such additional claim forms for other aspects of the invention

We claim:
1. In a computer, a method for monitoring and protecting
multiple instances of a contained process execution environment, wherein each of the multiple instances accesses emulated resources of the computer, the method comprising:
executing, on the computer, at least one security application that monitors each of the multiple instances of a contained process execution environment to detect harmful processes, wherein the at least one security application executes external to the multiple instances of so a contained process execution environment;
facilitating scanning of virtual resources of the each of the multiple instances of a contained process execution environment by the single set of security applications, wherein the virtual resources include the emulated resources of the computer; and wherein the facilitating includes configuring the set of security applications to be aware of the resources as perceived by a primary operating system of the computer; and
wherein facilitating the scanning of virtual resources of each of the multiple instances of a contained process execution environment by the single set of security applications includes providing access to a virtual network adaptor structure associated with one of the multiple instances of a contained process execution environment
2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one
security application accesses each of the multiple instances of a contained process execution environment via communication with corresponding agent security processes that nut in each of the multiple instances of a contained process execution environment in a one-to-one correspondence
3. The method as claimed in claim wherein the at least one
security application accesses each of the multiple instances of a contained process execution environment via a virtual machine object interface that provides a uniform interface through which the at least one security application 304 can access the emulated resources.
4. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the at least one
security application executes in a host system provided by the computer, and wherein each of the multiple instances of a contained processes execution environment also executes in the host system
5. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the at least one
security application executes in a host system provided by the computer, wherein each of the multiple instances of a contained processes execution environment also executes in the host system, and wherein the at least one security application is controlled, at least in part, by a supervisory process executing in the host system.
6. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein facilitating the
scanning of virtual resources of each of the multiple instances of a contained process execution environment by the single set of security applications includes providing access to a virtual memory structure associated with one of the multiple instances of a contained process execution environment.
7. The method of claim! wherein facilitating the scanning of
virtual resources of the each of the multiple instances of a contained process execution environment by the single set of security applications includes providing access to a virtual hard disk structure associated with one of the multiple instances of a contained process execution environment.
8. In a computer, a method for monitoring and protecting
multiple instances of a contained process execution environment, wherein each of the multiple instances accesses emulated resources of the computer; the method comprising:
executing, on the computer, at least one security application that monitors each of the multiple instances of a contained process execution environment to detect harmful processes, wherein the at least one security application executes external to the multiple instances of a contained process execution environment;
facilitating scanning of virtual resources of the each of the multiple instances of a contained process execution environment by the single set of security applications, wherein the virtual resources include the emulated resources of the computer, and
wherein the facilitating includes configuring the set of security applications to be aware of the resources as perceived by a primary operating system of the computer; and
wherein facilitating the scanning of virtual resources of the each of the multiple instances of a contained process execution environment by the single set of security applications includes providing access to a virtual driver
structure associated with one of the multiple instances of a contained process execution environment.
9. In a computer, a method for monitoring and protecting
multiple instances of a contained process execution environment wherein each of the multiple instances accesses emulated resources of the computer, the method comprising:
executing, on the computer, at least one security application that monitors each of the multiple instances of a contained process execution environment to detect harmful processes, wherein the at least one security application executes external to the multiple instances of a contained process execution environment;
facilitating scanning of virtual resources of the each of the multiple instances of a contained process execution environment by the single set of security applications, wherein the virtual resources include the emulated resources of the computer; and
wherein the facilitating includes configuring the set of security applications to be aware of the resources as perceived by a primary operating system of the computer; and
where a harmful process is detected in one of the multiple instances of a contained process execution environment, deactivating the instance if it is not already deactivated; and repairing the instance; and loading the repaired instance into a host environment of the computer so that it becomes active.
10. A method in a computer system for protecting an operating
system against damage caused by undesirable process actions, the method comprising:
pausing a kernel running on the operating system, wherein the operating system is at least partially isolated from core aspects of the computer system's infrastructure;
checking the kernel to determine whether there is evidence of an undesirable process action, wherein the checking is performed, at least in past, by a supervisory process that is separate from the at least partially isolated operating system; and where there is evidence of an undesirable process action in the at least partially isolated operating system, taking steps to contain the undesirable process action.
11. The method as claimed in claim 10 wherein the steps to
contain the undesirable process action include suspending
the at least partially isolated operating system and performing further monitoring.
12. The method as claimed in claim 10 wherein the steps to
contain the undesirable process action include suspending select processes running on the at least partially isolated operating system.
13. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the steps to contain
the undesirable process action include terminating a process associated with the undesirable process action
14. A computer system for securing access to privileged operations
associated with core components of the computer system, the system comprising:
a processor;
a primary memory storage in communication with the processor;
a secondary storage device;
an operating system; and
a host system, wherein the host system includes:
one or more virtual machines, wherein each of the one or more virtual machines is isolated from the core components of the computer system such that harmful processes cannot directly access the core components when running in an environment associated with the virtual machine, and wherein each one of the one or more virtual machines includes an instance of a virtual operating system, access to a virtual memory, and at least one virtual driver; and
at least one supervisory process used to monitor the one or more virtual machines in combination with a security application, wherein the monitoring includes the possible detection of a harmful process, and wherein the at least one supervisory process and the security application are isolated from the virtual machine.
15. The system as claimed in claim 14 wherein the monitoring
further includes monitoring address spaces of the virtual memory.
16. The system as claimed in claim 14 wherein the virtual
machine further includes access to one or more emulated
devices, and wherein the monitoring further includes monitoring the emulated devices.
17. The system as claimed in claim 14 wherein the virtual
machine further includes access to an emulated hard drive, and wherein the monitoring further includes monitoring the emulated hard drive.
18. The system as claimed in claim 14 wherein the monitoring
further includes performing integrity verifications on input to, or output from, processes running on the virtual machine.
19. The system as claimed in claim 14 wherein the virtual
machine further includes access to an emulated hard drive, and wherein the monitoring further includes checking the integrity of files that reside on the virtual memory or the emulated hard drive.