Hypervisor Guest Controlled Malicious Payload Protection

Solution Overview

Problem

Current virtualization systems lack effective mechanisms to ensure secure privileged access management for virtual machines, potentially allowing malicious payloads to compromise system security.

Innovation Solution

A system where a hypervisor receives requests from virtual machines for privileged access, temporarily disables access permissions to modify configurations, determines the security status, and only enables privileged access if the configuration is deemed secure, using page tables to manage memory access and protect against malicious payloads.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If the hypervisor enables privileged access to hypervisor resources, then the virtual machine can access and control hypervisor functions, but the risk of malicious payloads compromising system security increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveprivileged access capabilityVSAvoidsecurity risk from malicious payloads

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by disabling the virtual machine's access permissions to modify its configuration before enabling privileged access to hypervisor resources. This preliminary security check ensures that the virtual machine is in a secure state before granting elevated privileges, preventing malicious payloads from exploiting configuration modification capabilities.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The hypervisor implements a feedback mechanism where it determines whether the virtual machine's configuration is secure before enabling privileged access. This feedback loop allows the system to continuously monitor and verify the security state of the virtual machine, enabling or disabling access based on real-time security assessments.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

2Reliability

If the hypervisor disables the virtual machine's access permissions to modify configuration, then security is improved, but the ease of operation for legitimate virtual machines is reduced

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveconfiguration securityVSAvoidconfiguration modification capability

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by disabling the virtual machine's access permissions to modify its configuration before enabling privileged access to hypervisor resources. This preliminary security check ensures that the virtual machine is in a secure state before granting elevated privileges, preventing malicious payloads from exploiting configuration modification capabilities.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The access permissions are made dynamic rather than static. The hypervisor can enable or disable configuration modification capabilities based on the current security state of the virtual machine and the requested privileged access operations. This dynamic adjustment allows the system to maintain security while enabling operations when safe.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

3Difficulty of detecting and measuring

If the hypervisor continuously monitors configuration security status, then the detection of malicious payloads is improved, but the processing time and system overhead increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvemalicious payload detection capabilityVSAvoidprocessing time for access requests

Core Design Contradiction:

Difficulty of detecting and measuringVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by disabling the virtual machine's access permissions to modify its configuration before enabling privileged access to hypervisor resources. This preliminary security check ensures that the virtual machine is in a secure state before granting elevated privileges, preventing malicious payloads from exploiting configuration modification capabilities.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

Instead of continuously monitoring all configuration aspects, the system performs partial monitoring focused on specific security-critical configuration parameters. This selective monitoring approach reduces the processing overhead and time required for security checks while maintaining effective detection of malicious payloads that pose genuine security risks.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Data Source

PatentUS9459907B2Guest controlled malicious payload protection

Publication Date: 2016.10.04 RED HAT ISRAEL

AI summary

A system, methods, and apparatus for guest controlled malicious payload protection. A request is received from a virtual machine to enable privileged access to a hypervisor resource. Responsive to the request, the hypervisor disables the virtual machine's access permissions to modify a configuration of the virtual machine. The hypervisor then determines whether the configuration is secure. If the hypervisor determines that the configuration is secure, it enables the privileged access to the hypervisor resource.