Intra-partitioning of software components within an execution environment

• US 20070006175A1
• Filed: 03/30/2006
• Published: 01/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Savagaonkar, Uday, Khosravi, Hormuzd, Sahita, Ravi, Durham, David
• Application Number:
  US11/395,488
• Publication Number:
  US 20070006175A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/131
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45587 Isolation or security of virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/54 by adding security routines or objects to programs
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/123 received data contents, e.g. message integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/126 the source of the received data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227

Abstract

Embodiments of apparatuses, articles, methods, and systems for intra-partitioning components within an execution environment are generally described herein. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a component configured to be controlled by an operating system to operate within a first execution environment; and

a management module configured to identify the component and to partition off a portion of the component to control access by the operating system to the portion of the component.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the management module is further configured to:

create a protected page table and to enable the portion of the component to be operated from the protected page table to control access by the operating system to the portion of the component.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the management module is further configured to:

create another page table and to enable a portion of the operating system to operate from the another page table.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the management module is further configured to:

manage the execution flow between the protected page table and the another page table in a manner to control access by the operating system to the portion of the component.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the management module is further configured to:

manage the execution flow between the protected page table and the another page table based at least in part on one or more expected entry points and/or exit points.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the management module is further configured to:

compare one or more actual entry points and/or exit points to the one or more expected entry points and/or exit points; and

control access of the operating system to the component based at least in part on the result of said comparison.

7. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the management module is further configured to:

set access characteristics of page table entries of the protected page table that do not refer to memory having the portion of the component to cause a page fault for an attempted access of one of the not referencing page table entries; and

set access characteristics of page table entries of the another page table that refer to memory having the portion of the component to cause a page fault for an attempted access of one of the referencing page table entries.

8. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the another page table is an active page table or a host page table.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the management module comprises a virtual machine monitor.

10. A method comprising:

controlling, by an operating system, operation of a component in a first execution environment;

identifying the component; and

partitioning off a portion of the component to control access by the operating system to the portion of the component.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein content corresponding to the portion of the component is in a memory, the method further comprising:

measuring, from a second execution environment, an integrity of the content.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein said partitioning off the portion of the component comprises:

copying the content from an operating system accessible location in a memory to an operating system restricted location in the memory to control access by the operating system to the portion of the component.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein said partitioning off the portion of the component comprises:

creating a protected page table; and

operating the portion of the component from the protected page table to control access by the operating system to the portion of the component.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

operating a portion of the operating system from another page table; and

managing execution flow between the another page table and the protected page table to control access by the operating system to the portion of the component.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein said managing execution flow comprises:

verifying, upon an entry to the protected page table, an entry point and/or an entering execution state.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

recording, upon an exit from the protected page table, an exit point and/or an exiting execution state;

comparing, upon re-entry to the protected page table, the entry point to the recorded exit point and/or the entering execution state to the recorded exiting execution state; and

verifying the entry point and/or the entering execution state based at least in part on said comparing.

17. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving a request from another component to access the portion of the component;

identifying the another component;

referencing access permissions associated with the portion of the component; and

raising an exception to the requested access based at least in part on the referenced access permissions.

18. A machine accessible medium having associated instructions, which, when accessed, results in a machine:

controlling, by an operating system, operation of a component in a first execution environment;

identifying the component; and

partitioning off a portion of the component to control access by the operating system to the portion.

19. The machine accessible medium of claim 18, wherein the associated instructions, which, when accessed, further results in the machine:

creating a guest page table;

storing the guest page table in a first location in memory; and

setting the first location to read-only.

20. The machine accessible medium of claim 18, wherein the associated instructions, which, when accessed, further results in the machine:

creating a protected page table; and

operating the portion of the component from the protected page table to control access by the operating system to the portion of the component.

21. The machine accessible medium of claim 20, wherein the associated instructions, which, when accessed, further results in the machine:

creating another page table; and

operating a portion of the operating system from the another page table.

22. A system comprising:

a component configured to be controlled by an operating system to operate within a first execution environment;

a management module configured to identify the component and to partition off a portion of the component to control access by the operating system to the portion of the component; and

dynamic random access memory coupled to the management module and having content corresponding to the portion of the component.

23. The system of claim 22, further comprising:

an integrity measurement module configured to operate in a second execution environment and to measure an integrity of the content in the dynamic random access memory.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the management module is further configured to partition off the portion of the component based at least in part on the measured integrity of the content.

25. The system of claim 22, wherein the management module is further configured to:

copy the content from an operating system accessible location in the dynamic random access memory to an operating system restricted location in the dynamic random access memory to control access by the operating system to the portion of the component.

26. The system of claim 22, wherein the operating system is configured to create and store a guest page table in a first location in the dynamic random access memory.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the management module is further configured to set the first location to read-only after the operating system has created and stored the guest page table in the first location.