Security critical data containers

• US 20060179482A1
• Filed: 02/04/2005
• Published: 08/10/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Tammana, Venkata Rama Prasad, Alcazar, Mark A.
• Granted Patent: US 7,600,256 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/52 during program execution, e.g. stack integrity ; Preventing unwanted data erasure; Buffer overflow
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/57 Certifying or maintaining trusted computer platforms, e.g. secure boots or power-downs, version controls, system software checks, secure updates or assessing vulnerabilities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6227 where protection concerns the structure of data, e.g. records, types, queries
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 Privileged access

Abstract

Described are security critical data containers for platform code, comprising a Get container and Set container that allow data to be marked as security critical for critical usage of that data, but left unmarked for non-critical usage. The number of critical methods in the code is reduced, facilitating better code analysis. A container'"'"'s method may be marked as security critical, with the only access to the data via the method. By using a generic class for a Get container, access to the critical data only occurs through the property on the class, which is marked as critical. The field pointing to the generic class instance need not be critical, whereby initialization or existence checking may remain non-critical. The Set container handles security critical situations such as data that controls whether code can elevate permissions; a set method is marked as critical, while other methods can be accessed by non-critical code.

Claims

1. In a computing environment, a method comprising:

providing a container; and

allowing information to distinguish data associated with a particular method of the container as being security critical, such that the data only can be accessed via the particular method by code with elevated permissions.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the container comprises a get container and the method comprises a get method, and wherein the data only can be read via the get method by code with elevated permissions, and existence/initialization checks may be performed by code without elevated permissions.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the data comprises a value that provides access to a critical resource.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the container comprises a set container and the particular method comprises a set method, and wherein the data only can be set via the set method by code with elevated permissions.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising a get method, and wherein the data can be read via the get method by code without elevated permissions.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the data comprises a value that provides access to a critical resource.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the data comprises a value indicative of whether privileges can be elevated by other code.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the container is implemented in platform code that allows downloaded code to be executed, and further comprising analyzing the platform code via an analysis tool.

9. At least one computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions, which when executed perform the method of claim 1.

10. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a data structure, comprising:

a set container, including a set method and a get method; and

information that distinguishes data associated with the set method as security critical and associated with the get method as non-security critical;

such that the data can be read by code without elevated permissions via the get method, and the data only can be set by code with elevated permissions via the set method.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein the data comprises a value that provides access to a critical resource.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein the data comprises a value indicative of whether privileges can be elevated by other code.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 further comprising receiving a request to set the value from code with elevated permissions, and setting the value.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 further comprising receiving a request to read the value from code without elevated permissions, and returning data corresponding to the value.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein the set container is implemented in platform code that allows downloaded code to be executed, and further comprising analyzing the platform code via an analysis tool.

16. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a data structure, comprising:

a get container, including a get method; and

information that indicates data associated with the get method is security critical;

such that the data only can be read by code with elevated permissions via the get method, and existence/initialization checks may be performed by code without elevated permissions.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein the data comprises a value that provides access to a critical resource.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 16 further comprising receiving a request to get the value from code with elevated permissions, and returning data corresponding to the value.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein the set container is implemented in platform code that allows downloaded code to be executed, and further comprising analyzing the platform code via an analysis tool.