Dynamically monitoring application behavior

• US 8,332,825 B2
• Filed: 06/26/2008
• Issued: 12/11/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Mital, Vijay, Lindhorst, Greg
• Primary Examiner(s): Das, Chameli
• Application Number:
  US12/146,495
• Publication Number:
  US 20090328008A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,629 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/130
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3612 by runtime analysis performance monitoring G06F11/3466

Abstract

A dynamic verification system is described that enables application developers to safely include significant custom business logic in their applications. The dynamic verification system receives application behavior criteria that specify behavior of an application of interest to an application host. The system executes an application and instruments an application execution environment to detect application behavior that meets the application behavior criteria. The system determines when the application has performed an action that satisfies the application behavior criteria and provides a notification about the application behavior that occurred that a system administrator can use to take action against the application.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for monitoring behavior of an application executed in a shared hosting environment, the method comprising:

receiving application behavior criteria that specifies behavior of an application of interest to an application host, wherein the shared hosting environment executes other applications at the same time as the application and wherein the application behavior criteria identifies application behavior that interferes with executing another application;

instrumenting an application execution environment to detect application behavior that meets the application behavior criteria, wherein instrumenting provides hooks that provide notifications about the application'"'"'s actions as the application executes;

executing an application in the shared hosting environment;

determining that the application has performed an action that satisfies the application behavior criteria; and

providing a notification that the application behavior has occurred, wherein the notification identifies the application, the application behavior criteria, and information regarding the action that satisfies the application behavior criteria.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising, upon determining that the application has performed an action that satisfies the application behavior criteria, terminating execution of the application.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising, based on the notification, requesting from an application provider an updated version of the application.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising, upon determining that the application has performed an action that satisfies the application behavior criteria, charging an application provider an additional fee to continue allowing the application behavior.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein instrumenting an application execution environment comprises modifying an application model engine.

6. A computer system for dynamically verifying safety of an application for execution by a multi-tenant hosting provider, the system comprising:

a business logic store configured to store one or more applications for execution by the multi-tenant hosting provider;

an execution engine configured to execute applications based on a domain-specific application model; and

a dynamic checking component configured to perform dynamic verification checks of the application'"'"'s behavior while the application is executing, wherein the dynamic checking component instruments the application and wherein instrumenting provides hooks that provide notifications about the application'"'"'s actions as the application executes, wherein the execution engine executes other applications at the same time as the application and wherein the dynamic verification checks identify application behavior that interferes with executing another application.

7. The system of claim 6 further comprising a static checking component configured to perform static verification checks of the application without executing the application.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the dynamic checking component is further configured to provide feedback to the static checking component to improve static verification checks.

9. The system of claim 6 further comprising a monitoring component configured to monitor run-time behavior of the application and provide notification when the behavior fails a dynamic verification check.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the monitoring component is further configured to track historical execution information for applications.

11. The system of claim 6 further comprising a notification component configured to notify an application developer when the application fails a dynamic verification check.

12. A computer-readable storage device encoded with instructions for controlling a computer system to verify behavior of an application, by a method comprising:

receiving an application from an application developer for execution in a shared hosting environment;

performing one or more static checks of the received application to determine whether the application includes negative behavior;

storing the application in a data store for later execution;

executing the application in the shared hosting environment;

while the application is executing, performing one or more dynamic checks of the application to determine whether the application includes negative behavior at run-time, wherein the dynamic checks provide hooks that provide notifications about the application'"'"'s actions as the application executes, wherein the shared hosting environment executes other applications at the same time as the application and wherein the static and dynamic checks identify application behavior that interferes with executing another application.

13. The device of claim 12 further comprising, if the application includes negative run-time behavior, terminating execution of the application.

14. The device of claim 12 further comprising, if the application includes negative behavior, sending information regarding the negative behavior to the application developer.

15. The device of claim 12 further comprising, if the application includes negative behavior, notifying the application developer of the actions and expressions of an application model that are causing the negative behavior.

16. The device of claim 12 further comprising, if the application includes negative behavior at run-time, requesting an additional fee for hosting the application.

17. The device of claim 12 further comprising, if the application includes negative behavior at run-time, executing the application at a lower priority.

18. The device of claim 12 wherein at least one dynamic check determines a number of rows returned by a database query.

19. The device of claim 12 wherein at least one dynamic check determines a number of recipients of a communication.