SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SECURE OS ACCESS IN AN ECMA-SCRIPT VIRTUAL MACHINE

• US 20100100955A1
• Filed: 10/16/2008
• Published: 04/22/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Numobiq
• Original Assignee: Numobiq
• Inventors: Young, Mark, Haywood, Arvin
• Application Number:
  US12/252,562
• Publication Number:
  US 20100100955A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/17
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45587 Isolation or security of virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/53 by executing in a restricted environment, e.g. sandbox or secure virtual machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2149 Restricted operating environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

In an ECMAScript (JavaScript) Virtual Machine, applications are isolated from the operating system by defining an application context for each application. A root application context is defined that binds scripted objects of the root application context to equivalent native objects of the virtual machine. Other application contexts may send events on an event bus via the root application context to request resources of the operating system. The root application context determines the security privileges of the application context with respect to the requested resource, and is the only application context that is able to interact with the operating system.

Claims

1. A method for providing an interaction between an application executing in a virtual machine and an operating system, the method comprising:

defining an application context for the application;

receiving an operating system resource request from the application context;

providing the operating system resource request to a root application context defined in the virtual machine;

determining in the root application context whether the application has operating system privileges for a requested resource; and

providing the operating system resource request to the operating system dependent on the operating system privileges determined for the operating system resource request.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein defining the application context comprises defining an event bus between the application context and the root application context.

3. The method according to claim 2 wherein the operating system resource request is provided to the root application context as an event on the event bus.

4. The method according to claim 2 wherein defining the application context comprises defining a method for the application context, wherein the method defines a first function for posting events from the application context event bus to an event bus of the virtual machine and a second function for receiving events from the event bus of the virtual machine to the application context event bus.

5. The method according to claim 1 comprising:

defining a plurality of application contexts on the virtual machine;

receiving a plurality of operating system resource requests from the plurality of application contexts; and

routing each operating system resource request to the operating system via the root application context to determine the operating system privileges of the respective operating system resource request.

6. The method according to claim 5 further comprising adding an originating identity to an operating system resource request that identifies the originating application context for the respective operating system resource request.

7. The method according to claim 5 wherein the plurality of further application contexts communicate with the operating system via the root application context only.

8. The method according to claim 1 further comprising defining the root application context on the virtual machine.

9. The method according to claim 8 wherein defining the root application context comprises binding at least one scripted object within the root application context to at least one native object of the virtual machine.

10. The method according to claim 1 comprising returning a response to the operating system resource request to the application context via the root application context.

11. The method according to claim 10 comprising post-processing the response in the root application context.

12. A system comprising:

an operating system;

a virtual machine; and

an abstraction layer that provides a compatibility interface between the operating system and the virtual machine;

wherein the virtual machine is configured to define a first root application context for a first application and at least one further application context for at least one further application; and

wherein the virtual machine provides operating system resource requests from the at least one further application context to the operating system via the root application context.

13. The system according to claim 12 wherein the root application context is configured to determine whether an application has security privileges to access a requested resource of the operating system.

14. The system according to claim 13 wherein the virtual machine defines a security manager in the root application context that determines security privileges for an operating system resource request.

15. The system according to claim 12 comprising an event bus from a said further application context to the root application context via the virtual machine.

16. The system according to claim 15 wherein the at least one further application context provides operating system resource requests as events on the event bus.

17. The system according to claim 15 wherein the virtual machine is configured to add an originating identity to an operating system resource request that identifies to the root application context a further application context that originated an operating system resource request.

18. The system according to claim 12 wherein the virtual machine is configured to bind a scripted object of the root application context to an equivalent native object of the operating system via the virtual machine.

19. A computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions for execution by a processor, that, when executed:

receive an operating system resource request from an application context;

perform a determination whether an application associated with the application context is allowed to access an operating system resource specified by the operating system resource request; and

provide the operating system resource request to an operating system dependent on said determination.

20. The computer-readable medium according to claim 19 further comprising instructions that, when executed, receive a response from the operating system and pass the response to the application context.