Container Access Control via Runtime Profile Comparison
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Solution Overview
Problem
The variability of container content in software services deployments introduces security challenges, particularly in shared computing systems, as existing mechanisms struggle to reliably verify integrity and detect malicious activity due to the lack of standardized size, content, or arrangement of application containers.
Innovation Solution
An access control method that generates a runtime profile of software components executing in an operating system, comparing it to a baseline profile to identify undesirable performance, thereby preventing access to restricted resources by components exhibiting such behavior, and allowing access only to those demonstrating desirable performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If operating system-level virtualization is used to provide isolated application containers sharing common resources, then resource efficiency and deployment flexibility are improved, but security control and malicious activity detection become more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by generating a baseline profile of the software component's characteristics before execution. This baseline profile serves as a reference for later comparison during runtime monitoring, enabling proactive security control rather than reactive response
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback by continuously monitoring runtime characteristics of the executing container and comparing them against the baseline profile. When deviations are detected indicating undesirable performance, the system provides feedback by denying access to restricted resources, creating a closed-loop control mechanism for security
2Adaptability or versatility
If container content is made variable to accommodate different application requirements, then adaptability is improved, but integrity verification and malicious activity detection become less reliable
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the parameter of verification from static content-based checks to dynamic behavior-based monitoring. Instead of verifying fixed container contents, the system monitors runtime characteristics such as resource consumption patterns, execution behavior, and performance metrics, allowing verification adaptable to variable container content
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary mechanism - the baseline profile - that mediates between variable container content and verification requirements. The baseline profile captures acceptable ranges of runtime characteristics, serving as a flexible reference that adapts to different legitimate container configurations while still enabling detection of malicious deviations
3Reliability
If runtime monitoring and profile comparison are implemented to detect undesirable performance, then security control is improved, but system complexity and overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts only the essential runtime characteristics needed for security monitoring into the baseline profile, rather than monitoring all possible container attributes. This selective extraction reduces complexity by focusing on key parameters such as resource consumption patterns and execution behavior that most indicate malicious activity
Data Source
AI summary
An access control method for a restricted resource in a computer system having an operating system providing isolation between software processes executable in the operating system such that a first process executing in the operating system is prevented from accessing resources of a second process executing in the operating system, the method including receiving a software component for execution as an isolated process in the operating system; receiving a baseline profile for the software component defining characteristics of the software component at a runtime for identifying performance of the software component; generating a runtime profile of the software component in execution in the operating system defining characteristics of the component in execution; and permitting access by the software component to the restricted resource based on a comparison of the baseline profile and the runtime profile such that the software component exhibiting undesirable performance is precluded from accessing the restricted resource.