OS API for Secure Posture Assessment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional posture assessment techniques face challenges in determining the authenticity of a computing device's operating system, as custom-built or modified systems can simulate authentic ones, and often require root or administrator-level access, which may not be feasible or secure.
Innovation Solution
An operating system API provides temporarily heightened privileges to execute remote posture assessment code, allowing for verification of operating system components and security configurations, thereby enhancing the confidence in the assessment process.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional posture assessment techniques are used, then network access control can be implemented, but the authenticity of the operating system cannot be reliably determined due to spoofing capabilities of custom-built or modified systems
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary component (posture assessment agent or hypervisor) that sits between the operating system and the assessment system. This intermediary provides a controlled interface that allows the assessment system to verify OS authenticity without giving direct access to the OS, thereby preventing spoofing while enabling reliable verification through standardized measurement interfaces
2Measurement precision
If root or administrator-level access is required for posture assessment, then verification of operating system components can be performed, but the system becomes infeasible or insecure due to privilege requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The intermediary component acts as a mediator that performs verification operations without requiring root or administrator privileges on the assessed system. The intermediary has pre-configured access rights and capabilities to query OS components, execute verification code, and collect posture information through safe interfaces, making the assessment feasible and secure without elevated privileges
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service assessment where the posture assessment agent or hypervisor autonomously performs verification operations using its own built-in capabilities and pre-configured access rights. The assessed system does not need to grant temporary elevated privileges, as the intermediary already possesses the necessary permissions to perform verification functions independently
Data Source
AI summary
A posture assessment system is provided that uses an application programming interface (“API”), integrated into a computing device operating system, to assess the posture of the computing device. The API provides temporarily heightened access to the operating system, and executes code provided by the posture assessment system. The code may cause performance of various operations on the computing device, such as generating encoded representations of operating system components, performing computationally-expensive functions to verify execution of the code, and the like. The output of these operations can be sent to the posture assessment system for verification.