Synchronizing resources of a virtualized browser

• US 10,095,662 B1
• Filed: 06/18/2012
• Issued: 10/09/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Bromium Inc (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Bondalapati, Kiran, Kapoor, Vikram, Buddhiraja, Prakash, Banga, Gaurav, Pratt, Ian
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Stephen S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Roy, Sanchita
• Application Number:
  US13/526,409
• Time in Patent Office: 2,304 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation

Abstract

Approaches for synchronizing resources of a virtualized web browser. When a virtualized web browser is instructed to display a web page, a host module executing within a host operating instructs retrieves, from each of one or more virtual machines, contents for a portion of the web page. The virtualized web browser assembles the contents and displays the web page. A web browser executing in the host operating system may, but need not, retrieve any of the content displayed thereby. Instead, the content retrieved by the web browser executing in the host operating system may be retrieved by and rendered within a virtual machine. The behavior of the virtualized web browser may be configured using policy data.

Claims

1. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums storing one or more sequences of instructions for executing a virtualized web browser on a device, which when executed by one or more processors, cause:

a host operating system receiving, from one of one or more virtual machines, updated state data relevant to performing a user-initiated action, wherein the updated state data includes one or more of;

one or more cache files and web browser setting data, and wherein said one of said one or more virtual machines consults a first policy to determine whether to send said updated state data to said host operating system;

said host operating system consulting a second policy to determine which, if any, of said one or more virtual machines should receive said updated state data based upon, at least in part, a set of responsibilities assigned to each of said one or more virtual machines, wherein said second policy indicates that the updated state data should be provided to only those virtual machines, of said set of one or more virtual machines, which have been assigned responsibilities to which the updated state data is pertinent;

the host operating system providing said updated state data to at least one of said one or more virtual machines which does not currently possess said updated state data;

after the host operating system provides said updated state data to said at least one of said one or more virtual machines and upon the virtualized web browser receiving an instruction, within the host operating system executing on said device, to display a web page, retrieving, from each of said one or more virtual machines executing on said device, rendered contents for a portion of the web page; and

upon the virtualized web browser receiving the rendered contents from each of the one or more virtual machines, the virtualized web browser assembling the rendered contents and displaying the web page.

2. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums of claim 1, wherein the rendered contents received from each of the one or more virtual machines correspond to one or more of graphics, files, or screen data.

3. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums of claim 1, wherein the rendered contents received from each of the one or more virtual machines is screen data content that corresponds to a graphical depiction of the appearance of a portion of the web page, and wherein the screen data content is expressed in a different format than the web page.

4. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums storing one or more sequences of instructions for executing a virtualized web browser on a device, which when executed by one or more processors, cause:

a host operating system receiving updated state data relevant to performing a user-initiated action, wherein the updated state data includes one or more of;

one or more cache files and web browser setting data, and wherein said one of said one or more virtual machines consults a first policy to determine whether to send said updated state data to said host operating system;

said host operating system consulting a second policy to determine which, if any, of said one or more virtual machines should receive said updated state data based upon, at least in part, a set of responsibilities assigned to each of said one or more virtual machines, wherein said second policy indicates that the updated state data should be provided to only those virtual machines, of said set of one or more virtual machines, which have been assigned responsibilities for to which the updated state data is pertinent;

the host operating system providing said updated state data to said at least one of said one or more virtual machines which does not currently possess said updated state data;

upon the virtualized web browser being instructed to display a web page, a host module, executing within the host operating system, identifying without human intervention a particular virtual machine in said one or more virtual machines from which at least a portion of the web page should be retrieved; and

the host module instructing a guest module, executing within the particular virtual machine, to (a) retrieve the portion of the web page and (b) provide rendered contents for the portion of the web page to the host module; and

upon the host module receiving the rendered contents from the guest module, the host module instructing the virtualized web browser to display the web page using the rendered contents.

5. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums of claim 4, wherein the virtualized web browser consults policy data to determine whether to display the web page with a visual indicator that identifies that the web page, or any portion thereof, was not retrieved within the host operating system.

6. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums of claim 4, wherein the host module consults one or more policies to (a) identify the particular virtual machine and (b) determine how to instruct the guest module to retrieve the portion of the web page.

7. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums of claim 4, wherein the host module instructing the guest module further comprises:

the host module providing to the guest module said updated state data, which identifies information about how the user has interacted with a current instance or previous instance of the virtualized web browser, for the guest module to use in retrieving the portion of the web page.

8. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums of claim 4, wherein execution of the instructions further comprises:

after the host module instructs the guest module, the guest module requesting from the host module additional state data, separate from said updated state data, that is pertinent to the retrieval of the web page.

9. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums of claim 4, wherein execution of the instructions further comprises:

after the virtualized web browser displays the web page, the host module communicating any received user input directed against the displayed web page to a particular guest module responsible for processing the user input; and

upon the particular guest module receiving said received user input communicated from the host module, the virtualized web browser performing an action in response to said received user input.

10. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums of claim 9, wherein the action is retrieving additional content selected by the user.

11. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums of claim 4, wherein the host module instructing the guest module further comprises:

the host module instantiating the particular virtual machine in response to the host module receiving a request, from the user, to display the web page.

12. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums of claim 11, wherein the host module instantiates the particular virtual machine using a template that causes the particular virtual machine to have characteristics chosen for web browsing activity.

13. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums of claim 4, wherein execution of the instructions further causes:

upon the user instructing the virtualized web browser to display a second web page different than said web page, the host module determining, based on policy data accessible to the host module, whether the particular virtual machine should retrieve the second web page.

14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums of claim 13, wherein execution of the instructions further causes:

upon the host module determining that the particular virtual machine should retrieve the second web page, the host module instructing the guest module to retrieve the second web page and provide a second set of rendered screen data content that informs the virtualized web browser how to display the second web page.

15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums of claim 13, wherein execution of the instructions further causes:

upon the host module determining that the particular virtual machine should retrieve the second web page, the host module instructing the guest module to retrieve the second web page; and

the guest module providing, to the host module, second set of rendered screen data content that informs the virtualized web browser how to display the second web page.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums of claim 13, wherein execution of the instructions further causes:

upon the host module determining that the particular virtual machine should not retrieve the second web page, the host module (a) instantiating a second virtual machine different than the particular virtual machine and (b) instructing a second guest module, executing in the second virtual machine, to retrieve the second web page within the second virtual machine.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums of claim 4, wherein the rendered contents are a graphical depiction of at least a portion of the appearance of the web page, and wherein the rendered contents are expressed in a different format than the web page.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums of claim 4, wherein execution of the instructions further causes:

upon the guest module determining that data within the particular virtual machine should be persistently stored, the guest module sending a request, to the host module, to persistently store the data within the host operating system.

19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums of claim 18, wherein execution of the instructions further causes:

upon the host module receiving the data from the particular virtual machine, the host module providing at least a portion of the data to one or more other guest modules that each reside in one or more other virtual machines,

wherein each of the one or more other guest modules use the at least a portion of the data to retrieve content for display by the virtualized web browser.

20. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums of claim 4, wherein execution of the instructions further causes:

upon the virtualized web browser being instructed to display a new tab, the virtualized web browser displaying the new tab without instantiating a new virtual machine; and

upon the host module receiving notification that the user wishes to view a second web page in the new tab, the host module (a) instantiating a second virtual machine different than the particular virtual machine and (b) instructing a second guest module, executing in the second virtual machine, to retrieve the second web page using a web browser executing within the second virtual machine.

21. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums of claim 4, wherein execution of the instructions further causes:

upon the host module receiving notification that the user is submitting user input data to the virtualized web browser, the host module identifying a portion of a displayed web page to which the user input data is directed;

the host module identifying a virtual machine responsible for said portion of the displayed web page; and

the host module providing the user input data to the virtual machine.

22. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums of claim 4, wherein execution of the instructions further causes:

upon the host module receiving notification that the user is closing the virtualized web browser, the host module de-instantiating without human intervention the particular virtual machine and any other virtual machine that provided content to the virtualized web browser as a result of the user closing the virtualized web browser.

23. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums of claim 4, wherein the web page is a first web page, and wherein execution of the instructions further causes:

upon the virtualized web browser being instructed to display a second web page, the host module instructing the particular virtual machine to retrieve the second web page and provide a second set of rendered content, to the host module,

wherein the second web page is different than the first web page and is associated with a same domain as the first web page; and

upon the virtualized web browser being instructed to display a third web page, the host module instructing a second virtual machine, different than the particular virtual machine, to retrieve the third web page and provide third set of rendered content, to the host module,

wherein the third web page is not associated with the same domain as the first web page.

24. An apparatus for executing a virtualized web browser on a device, comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more machine-readable mediums storing one or more sequences of instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors, causes;

a host operating system receiving updated state data relevant to performing a user-initiated action, wherein the updated state data includes one or more of;

one or more cache files and web browser setting data, and wherein said one of said one or more virtual machines consults a first policy to determine whether to send said updated state data to said host operating system;

said host operating system consulting a second policy to determine which, if any, of said one or more virtual machines should receive said updated state data based upon, at least in part, a set of responsibilities assigned to each of said one or more virtual machines, wherein said second policy indicates that the updated state data should be provided to only those virtual machines, of said set of one or more virtual machines, which have been assigned responsibilities to which the updated state data is pertinent;

the host operating system providing said updated state data to said at least one of said one or more virtual machines which does not currently possess said updated state data;

upon the virtualized web browser receiving an instruction, within the host operating system executing on said device, to display a web page, retrieving, from the one or more virtual machines executing on said device, a rendered graphical image of at least a portion of the web page; and

upon the virtualized web browser receiving the rendered graphical image from each of the one or more virtual machines, the virtualized web browser assembling the rendered graphical images and displaying the web page.

25. A method for executing a virtualized web browser on a device, which when executed by one or more processors, comprising:

a host operating system receiving updated state data relevant to performing a user-initiated action, wherein the updated state data includes one or more of;

one or more cache files and web browser setting data, and wherein said one of said one or more virtual machines consults a first policy to determine whether to send said updated state data to said host operating system;

said host operating system consulting a second policy to determine which, if any, of said one or more virtual machines should receive said updated state data based upon, at least in part, a set of responsibilities assigned to each of said one or more virtual machines, and wherein said second policy indicates that the updated state data should be provided to only those virtual machines, of said set of one or more virtual machines, which have been assigned responsibilities to which the updated state data is pertinent;

the host operating system providing said updated state data to said at least one of said one or more virtual machines which does not currently possess said updated state data;

upon the virtualized web browser receiving an instruction, within the host operating system executing on said device, to display a web page, retrieving, from the one or more virtual machines executing on said device, a rendered graphical image of at least a portion of the web page; and

upon the virtualized web browser receiving the rendered graphical image from each of the one or more virtual machines, the virtualized web browser assembling the rendered graphical images and displaying the web page.