User-Level Virtualization Layer for Secure Application Portability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional application virtualization techniques face challenges in decoupling applications from underlying operating systems, leading to compatibility issues and security vulnerabilities, particularly in managing events and resource access without administrative rights.
Innovation Solution
A method and system for executing virtualized applications using a user-space virtualization layer that performs user-level hooking of events based on predefined rules, allowing or blocking functions, and employing machine learning to generate and update rules for enhanced security and resource control.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If traditional application virtualization techniques are used to decouple applications from operating systems, then application portability across different operating systems is improved, but security vulnerabilities and compatibility issues worsen due to lack of event management and resource access control
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a user-level virtualization layer as an intermediary between the application and the operating system. This virtualization layer intercepts and manages system events, providing controlled access to operating system resources. By acting as a mediator, it enables application portability while maintaining security through predefined access rules, thus resolving the contradiction between adaptability and reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the operating system interface into controlled access points through the user-level virtualization layer. This segmentation allows the application to interact with the operating system only through managed event hooks and resource access controls, improving both portability through abstraction and security through controlled interfaces.
2Reliability
If user-level hooking of events is implemented to manage resource access, then security control is improved, but system complexity increases due to event monitoring and rule evaluation mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by establishing a user-level virtualization layer with predefined access rules before the application executes. The virtualization layer is configured in advance with security policies and event management mechanisms, so that when events occur during application execution, the responses are already determined by pre-established rules, reducing runtime complexity while maintaining strong security control.
3Reliability
If machine learning is used to generate and update rules for security, then adaptive security control is improved, but computational resources and processing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms where the machine learning component analyzes application behavior and system events, then adjusts access rules accordingly. This feedback loop enables adaptive security control by learning from actual usage patterns. The system processes events and updates rules only when necessary, optimizing the balance between adaptive security and computational resource consumption.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for executing a virtualized application on a computing system that includes a user-space and a kernel-space is disclosed. The method includes executing an application in the user-space, executing a user-level virtualization layer in the user-space, the user-level virtualization layer including a set of rules, performing, via the user-level virtualization layer, user-level hooking of events that are generated by the executing application according to the set of rules to identify events of interest, and determining whether to allow or block a function corresponding to an event that is identified as an event of interest based on the set of rules in the user-level virtualization layer.