Micro-virtual machine forensics and detection

• US 10,607,007 B2
• Filed: 11/21/2016
• Issued: 03/31/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Kashyap, Rahul C., Navaraj, J. McEnroe Samuel, Singh, Baibhav, Passi, Arun, Wojtczuk, Rafal, Taylor, Adrian
• Primary Examiner(s): Desrosiers, Evans
• Application Number:
  US15/358,004
• Publication Number:
  US 20170076092A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,226 Days
• Field of Search: 726 23
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1458 Management of the backup or restore process
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45587 Isolation or security of virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45591 Monitoring or debugging support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/316 by observing the pattern of computer usage, e.g. typical user behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/53 by executing in a restricted environment, e.g. sandbox or secure virtual machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/552 involving long-term monitoring or reporting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/554 involving event detection and direct action
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/566 Dynamic detection, i.e. detection performed at run-time, e.g. emulation, suspicious activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/034 Test or assess a computer or a system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2133 Verifying human interaction, e.g., Captcha
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

An isolated environment is instantiated in response to receiving a request to execute a process. One or more events occurring within the isolated environment in which the process executes are identified. Whether the actual behavior of the process executing within the isolated environment deviates from an expected behavior of the execution of the process is determined. Only when it is determined that the process deviates from the expected behavior is behavior data, which describes the actual behavior of the process during execution, stored. A determination is then made as to whether the process is compromised by analyzing the behavior data that describes the actual behavior of the process.

Claims

1. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums storing one or more sequences of instructions for monitoring process behavior, which when executed by one or more processors, cause:

identifying one or more events occurring within an isolated environment in which a process executes, wherein the isolated environment is instantiated in response to receiving a request to execute the process;

determining whether an actual behavior of the process executing within the isolated environment deviates from an expected behavior of the execution of the process based upon a set of events associated with the process that pertain to the process accessing or attempting to access an encryption API or an API associated with sleeping;

only upon determining that the process deviates from the expected behavior, storing behavior data that describes the actual behavior of the process during execution, the storing behavior data includes creating a snapshot of the isolated environment; and

determining whether the process is compromised by analyzing the behavior data that describes the actual behavior of the process.

2. The non-transitory one or more computer-readable storage mediums of claim 1, wherein determining that the process deviates from the expected behavior is based upon a set of events performed upon simulated hardware.

3. The non-transitory one or more computer-readable storage mediums of claim 2, wherein the simulated hardware is network hardware.

4. The non-transitory one or more computer-readable storage mediums of claim 2, wherein the simulated hardware is a region of memory or a non-volatile storage medium.

5. The non-transitory one or more computer-readable storage mediums of claim 2, wherein the simulated hardware is a register or a page table.

6. The non-transitory one or more computer-readable storage mediums of claim 1, wherein determining that the process deviates from the expected behavior is based upon a set of events pertaining to a change in a file system or a registry.

7. The non-transitory one or more computer-readable storage mediums of claim 1, wherein analyzing the behavioral data to determine whether the process has been compromised comprises:

storing data comprising known behavior of a plurality of processes;

comparing the behavioral data to the data comprising known behavior of a plurality of processes; and

based on the comparison, identifying whether the behavioral data matches a portion of the data comprising known behavior of a plurality of processes.

17. The non-transitory one or more computer-readable storage mediums of claim 1, wherein determining that the process deviates from the expected behavior further comprises consulting a set of configurable rules stored in an XML file that are established by an administrator.

18. The non-transitory one or more computer-readable storage mediums of claim 1, wherein determining that the process deviates from the expected behavior further comprises consulting a set of configurable rules, established by a user, specific to a document MIME type associated with said file.

8. An apparatus, comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums storing one or more sequences of instructions for monitoring process behavior, which when executed, cause;

identifying one or more events occurring within an isolated environment in which a process executes, wherein the isolated environment is instantiated in response to receiving a request to execute the process;

determining whether an actual behavior of the process executing within the isolated environment deviates from an expected behavior of the execution of the process based upon a set of events associated with the process that pertain to the process accessing or attempting to access an encryption API or an API associated with sleeping;

only upon determining that the process deviates from the expected behavior, storing behavior data that describes the actual behavior of the process during execution, the storing behavior data includes creating a snapshot of the isolated environment; and

determining whether the process is compromised by analyzing the behavior data that describes the actual behavior of the process.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein determining that the process deviates from the expected behavior is based upon a set of events performed upon simulated hardware.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the simulated hardware is network hardware.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the simulated hardware is a region of memory or a non-volatile storage medium.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the simulated hardware is a register or a page table.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein determining that the process deviates from the expected behavior is based upon a set of events pertaining to a change in a file system or a registry.

14. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein analyzing the behavioral data to determine whether the process has been compromised comprises:

storing data comprising known behavior of a plurality of processes;

comparing the behavioral data to the data comprising known behavior of a plurality of processes; and

based on the comparison, identifying whether the behavioral data matches a portion of the data comprising known behavior of a plurality of processes.

15. A method for monitoring process behavior, comprising:

programmatically identifying one or more events occurring within an isolated environment in which a process executes, wherein the isolated environment is instantiated in response to receiving a request to execute the process;

programmatically determining whether an actual behavior of the process executing within the isolated environment deviates from an expected behavior of the execution of the process based upon a set of events associated with the process that pertain to the process accessing or attempting to access an encryption API or an API associated with sleeping;

programmatically storing behavior data that describes the actual behavior of the process during execution only upon determining that the process deviates from the expected behavior the programmatically storing behavior data includes programmatically creating a snapshot of the isolated environment; and

programmatically determining whether the process is compromised by analyzing the behavior data that describes the actual behavior of the process.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein determining that the process deviates from the expected behavior is based upon a set of events performed upon simulated hardware.