Virtual Environment Validation for Secure Container License Sharing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional virtual computing environments consume large amounts of memory and processing resources, and licensing issues arise when application programs are executed within container environments, leading to potential piracy and unauthorized sharing of licenses across different devices.
Innovation Solution
Implement an environment type validation mechanism that performs tamper-resistant checks on the computing environment, including verification of encryption infrastructure, code integrity, and presence of hypervisors and system drivers, to ensure legitimate policy management and license sharing between host and container environments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If application programs are allowed to execute within a container environment, then ease of operation is improved, but reliability deteriorates due to potential license piracy and unauthorized sharing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an environment type validation mechanism as an intermediary between the container environment and the application license validation system. This validator performs multiple checks (encryption infrastructure, code integrity, hypervisor presence, system drivers) to verify that the container is legitimate before allowing license sharing. The validator acts as a mediator that enables ease of operation for authorized containers while blocking piracy attempts, thus resolving the contradiction between operational ease and reliability.
2Reliability
If environment type validation checks are performed, then reliability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The validation mechanism is segmented into multiple independent check modules: encryption infrastructure verification, code integrity verification, hypervisor presence detection, and system driver verification. Each module performs a specific validation function and can operate independently. This segmentation allows the complex validation process to be managed through modular components, reducing the perceived complexity while maintaining comprehensive reliability checks.
3Reliability
If multiple validation checks are performed on the computing environment, then reliability is improved, but loss of time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The validation checks are performed as preliminary actions during the container initialization phase or before the first application launch. By conducting encryption infrastructure verification, code integrity checks, hypervisor detection, and system driver validation upfront, the system ensures reliability is established before actual application execution begins. This timing minimizes the impact on user-facing operations, as the validation occurs in the background during setup rather than during active use.
Data Source
AI summary
Environment type validation can provide a tamper-resistant validation of the computing environment within which the environment type validation is being performed. Such information can then be utilized to perform policy management, which can include omitting verifications in order to facilitate the sharing of policy, such as application licenses, from a host computing environment into a container virtual computing environment. The environment type validation can perform multiple checks, including verification of the encryption infrastructure of the computing environment, verification of code integrity mechanisms of that computing environment, checks for the presence of functionality evidencing a hypervisor, checks for the presence or absence of predetermined system drivers, or other like operating system components or functionality, checks for the activation or deactivation of resource management stacks, and checks for the presence or absence of predetermined values in firmware.