Managed Shell Sandboxes for Malicious Script Isolation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing operating system security based on user identity is insufficient for protecting internal computer resources from potentially malicious downloads and scripts, as it allows unknowingly executed malicious codes to access critical resources with user permissions.
Innovation Solution
A managed shell environment is created dynamically to enforce security policies, recognizing shell tools and resources, and establishing a sandbox for secure execution, merging various security policies to restrict actions and permissions, thereby enhancing security beyond traditional user-based access controls.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If user identity-based security is used, then ease of operation is maintained, but security against malicious downloads is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
A sandbox environment is introduced as an intermediary between the shell script execution and the operating system resources. The sandbox acts as a mediator that intercepts, monitors, and controls access requests, allowing the system to maintain ease of operation while significantly improving security against malicious downloads through isolated execution environments.
Solution Approach 2:
The security system is segmented into multiple policy layers including tool-specific security policies, application-specific security policies, resource-based security policies, shell-based policies, owner-based policies, and user-based policies. This segmentation allows each policy type to be independently managed and applied, resolving the complexity issue by organizing security controls into manageable categories.
2Reliability
If sandbox environment is created for each shell script, then security is improved, but execution overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The sandbox environment is created and configured before the shell script execution begins. Security policies are pre-loaded and validated in advance, allowing the actual script execution to proceed without repeated policy checks or environment setup overhead, thus minimizing execution time while maintaining strong security isolation.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention allows shell program to be managed with security policies and enforced using sandboxes enforced by the security manager of a managed environment. The additional security policies may come from shell tool specific security policies, application specific security policies, resource based security policies, shell based policies, owner based policies, user based policies and/or other types of policies. Security policies may be merged to provide a managed shell more permission granularity in addition to existing machine policies.