Method for enabling hardware assisted operating system region for safe execution of untrusted code using trusted transitional memory

• US 9,069,952 B1
• Filed: 05/20/2013
• Issued: 06/30/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile Innovations LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Paczkowski, Lyle W., Parsel, William M., Persson, Carl J., Schlesener, Matthew C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zee, Edward
• Application Number:
  US13/898,435
• Time in Patent Office: 771 Days
• Field of Search: 726/22, 726/25, 726/24, 726/26
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 2221/2105 Dual mode as a secondary aspect

Abstract

An electronic device. The device comprises an anti-trusted-security-zone in the trusted security zone that, when installed and managed by the trusted security zone manager, places non-trusted applications into the anti-trusted-security-zone for execution, restricts access of the non-trusted applications to at least some resources of the electronic device outside the anti-trusted-security-zone, alerts the user when the non-trusted application inside the anti-trusted-security-zone desires access to any restricted resource of the electronic device outside the anti-trusted-security-zone, asks the user for permission to access the desired resource outside the anti-trusted-security-zone, grants access for the non-trusted application to requested resources outside the anti-trusted-security-zone upon the permission by the user, moves the applications from the anti-trusted-security-zone to the normal zone that are determined not to be malicious, keeps the applications within the anti-trusted-security-zone that do not need to execute outside the anti-trusted-security-zone, and deletes the applications that are determined to be malicious.

Claims

1. An electronic device, comprising:

a processor;

an operating system;

a memory;

a trusted security zone manager to manage a trusted security zone; and

an anti-trusted-security-zone in the trusted security zone that, when installed and managed by the trusted security zone manager

places non-trusted applications into the anti-trusted-security-zone for execution,

restricts access of the non-trusted applications to at least some resources of the electronic device outside the anti-trusted-security-zone,

alerts a user when a non-trusted application of the non-trusted applications inside the anti-trusted-security-zone desires access to any restricted resource of the electronic device outside the anti-trusted-security-zone,

asks the user for permission to access the desired resource outside the anti-trusted-security-zone,

grants access for the non-trusted application to the desired resource outside the anti-trusted-security-zone upon the permission by the user,

moves any of the non-trusted applications from the anti-trusted-security-zone to a normal zone that are determined not to be malicious,

keeps any of the non-trusted applications within the anti-trusted-security-zone that do not need to execute outside the anti-trusted-security-zone, and

deletes any of the non-trusted applications that are determined to be malicious,

whereby the risk that the non-trusted applications can cause harm to the electronic device is reduced.

2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the non-trusted application is JavaScript code.

3. The electronic device of claim 2, wherein a just in time (JIT) compiler is exploited in a JavaScript engine, or JavaScript interpreter, to compile the JavaScript code.

4. The electronic device claim 2, wherein a web browser that is developed based upon Hypertext Markup Language 5 (HTML5) technology utilizes the JavaScript code that is walled off from access to any of the rest of the electronic device.

5. The electronic device of claim 2, wherein a web application that is developed based upon HTML5 technology different from a web browser utilizes the JavaScript code.

6. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the non-trusted application within the anti-trusted-security-zone is determined to be “

not malicious”

when the application is from a trusted source or did not try to access restricted resources outside the anti-trusted-security-zone without permission or after a request had been denied within a predefined time period.

7. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the electronic device is one of a server computer, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a tablet computer, a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a media player, a game console, an Internet digital media streaming device, or another network/communications capable device.

8. A method of reducing the risk of a JavaScript injection harming a computing device, comprising:

installing an anti-trusted-security-zone into a memory of a computing device;

placing dynamically downloaded JavaScript that is part of a web browser into the anti-trusted-security-zone for execution;

restricting access of the JavaScript to at least part of the rest of the computing device, wherein when the JavaScript stored in the anti-trusted-security zone is executed, the JavaScript is allowed to write to a screen of the computing device but not to read from the screen of the computing device;

alerting a user when the JavaScript inside the anti-trusted-security-zone desires access to any restricted resource of the computing device outside the anti-trusted-security-zone;

asking the user for permission to access the desired resource outside the anti-trusted-security-zone;

granting access for the JavaScript to the desired resource outside the anti-trusted-security-zone upon the user'"'"'s permission; and

moving the JavaScript from the anti-trusted-security-zone to a normal zone that is determined not to be malicious.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the JavaScript can run freely in the anti-trusted-security-zone to accomplish its task as long as the JavaScript does not need to access any restricted computer resource.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the reducing the risk of the JavaScript injection harming the computing computer device is transparent to the browser experience of the user.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein a trusted security zone manager launches and manages the anti-trusted-security-zone.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the trusted security zone manager operates within a secure partition of the memory called a trusted security zone in the computing device.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein a hardware partition of the trusted security zone and a software installation of the trusted security zone enable a trusted execution environment (TEE) on the computing device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the trusted execution environment is included/integrated within a processor chip on the computing device at the chip manufacturer.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein access of the JavaScript within the anti-trusted-security-zone is restricted to at least some of a plurality of peripherals, a non-trusted memory, a network, and other resources outside the anti-trusted-security-zone of the computing device.

16. A method of managing untrusted applications on an electronic device to reduce the risk that the untrusted applications can cause harm to the electronic device, comprising:

placing non-trusted applications into an anti-trusted-security-zone for execution;

restricting access of the non-trusted applications to at least some resources outside the anti-trusted-security-zone;

alerting a user when a non-trusted application of the non-trusted applications inside the anti-trusted-security-zone desires access to any restricted resource of the electronic device outside the anti-trusted-security-zone;

asking the user for permission to access the desired resource outside the anti-trusted-security zone;

granting access for the non-trusted application to the desired resource outside the anti-trusted-security-zone upon the permission by the user;

moving one or more of the non-trusted applications from the anti-trusted-security-zone to a normal zone that are determined not to be malicious;

keeping any of the non-trusted application within the anti-trusted-security-zone that do not need to execute outside the anti-trusted-security-zone; and

deleting any of the non-trusted applications that are determined to be malicious.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the electronic device is one of a server computer, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a tablet computer, or a mobile phone.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the one or more of the non-trusted applications are moved from the anti-trusted-security-zone to the normal zone in response to a determination that permission is granted by the user and that the one or more of the non-trusted applications are from a trusted source.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the desired resource outside the anti-trusted-security-zone that the non-trusted application desires access to is data, network, or a hardware component of the electronic device.