Method and System for Direct Insertion of a Virtual Machine Driver

• US 20080320499A1
• Filed: 10/04/2007
• Published: 12/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Suit, John M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,127,290 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/323
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0263 Rule management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1416 Event detection, e.g. attack signature detection

Abstract

A method and system for a communication network containing both trusted peers and untrusted hosts within the network. Trusted peers can collaborate with each other to observe and monitor the activity of the untrusted hosts. In addition, a trusted peer instantiated with a virtual machine can have an operating system kernel collaborate with a hypervisor to determine whether threats are present. A trusted peer that needs particular functionality installed can collaborate with other trusted peers and with an administrative console to have that functionality installed. An untrusted host can have a driver directly inserted into it by an administration console, which will facilitate in the collaboration process.

Claims

1. A method for inserting a driver into a virtual machine comprising:

parsing a virtual machine file for a known bit pattern;

determining a location in which to insert an executable segment;

inserting the executable segment into the virtual machine file; and

verifying the insertion completed successfully.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the known bit pattern is a first driver.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the executable segment is a second driver.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the first driver is one of a printer driver, communications driver, or video driver.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the second driver is a kernel driver.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein inserting the executable segment further comprises compressing the known bit pattern, the executable segment, and a compression engine into a memory space equivalent in size to the known bit pattern.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein inserting the executable segment further comprises:

replacing the known bit pattern in the virtual machine file with the executable segment;

encapsulating the known bit pattern with an application wrapper; and

utilizing the executable segment as a conduit to allow the known bit pattern to execute.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein inserting the executable segment further comprises:

executing the virtual machine in temporary memory;

executing a driver insertion script; and

inserting the executable segment into the executing virtual machine.

9. A system for inserting a driver into a virtual machine comprising:

means for parsing a virtual machine file for a known bit pattern;

means for determining a location in which to insert an executable segment;

means for inserting the executable segment into the virtual machine file; and

means for verifying the insertion completed successfully.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the known bit pattern is a first driver.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the executable segment is a second driver.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the first driver is one of a printer driver, communications driver, or video driver.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the second driver is a kernel driver.

14. The system of claim 9, further comprising a means for compressing the known bit pattern, the executable segment, and a compression engine into a memory space equivalent in size to the known bit pattern.

15. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

means for replacing the known bit pattern in the virtual machine file with the executable segment;

means for encapsulating the known bit pattern with an application wrapper; and

means for utilizing the executable segment as a conduit to allow the known bit pattern to execute.

16. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

means for executing the virtual machine in temporary memory;

means for executing a driver insertion script; and

means for inserting the executable segment into the executing virtual machine.