OS Service Sanitization for Sensitive Data Protection
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing threat of data scavenging and insider attacks, combined with regulatory requirements like GDPR, necessitates effective protection of personally identifiable information (PII) from exposure through memory core dumps, orphan processes, and persistent memory, which existing technologies have not adequately addressed.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a 'smart garbage sanitization engine' as an operating system service that sanitizes sensitive data by masking or encrypting it upon software exceptions, using compiler directives and flags to control sanitization policies, and secure enclaves to protect memory regions, ensuring irreversible or reversible data transformation as needed.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If data is stored in memory for process execution, then process functionality is enabled, but sensitive information becomes exposed through memory core dumps and orphan processes
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary sanitization by marking sensitive data regions and registering cleanup handlers before exceptions occur. When software exceptions happen, the registered handlers automatically sanitize the marked memory regions, preventing sensitive information exposure through core dumps and orphan processes while maintaining normal process execution.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary layer between process execution and memory access by implementing compiler directives and runtime libraries that mark sensitive data regions. This intermediary mechanism enables automatic identification and sanitization of sensitive information without interfering with normal process functionality, resolving the contradiction between data protection and information accessibility.
2Reliability
If comprehensive data sanitization is implemented, then sensitive information is protected, but system complexity and performance overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of implementing system-wide sanitization, the patent applies sanitization locally to specific memory regions marked as containing sensitive information. Compiler directives allow selective marking of sensitive data regions, and the sanitization mechanism operates only on these marked regions, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining effective protection where needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements self-service sanitization through automatic registration of cleanup handlers and autonomous operation of sanitization routines. When exceptions occur, the system automatically invokes the registered handlers to sanitize marked memory regions without requiring manual intervention or complex centralized control, thereby reducing system complexity.
3Ease of operation
If memory core dumps are enabled for debugging, then software analysis is improved, but sensitive data exposure risk increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies preliminary anti-action by pre-marking sensitive data regions and pre-registering cleanup handlers that will automatically sanitize these regions when core dumps occur. This preliminary preparation prevents sensitive data exposure in core dumps while maintaining the debugging capability, as the sanitization happens automatically without preventing core dump generation.
Data Source
AI summary
A technique includes, in response to an exception occurring in the execution of a process on a computer, invoking an operating system service. The operating system service is used to sanitize data that is associated with the process and is stored in a memory of the computer. The data is associated with sensitive information.