Abstract: Described systems and methods enable performing software audits remotely and automatically, on a relatively large number of client systems (e.g., a corporate network, a virtual desktop infrastructure system, etc.) An audit engine executes on each client system, in a hardware virtualization configuration wherein the audit engine executes outside an audited virtual machine. When receiving an audit request from an audit server, some embodiments of the audit engine drop an audit agent into the audited virtual machine, and remove the audit agent upon completion of the audit.

Abstract: Described systems and methods enable enforcing application control remotely and automatically, on a relatively large number of client systems (e.g., a corporate network, a virtual desktop infrastructure system, etc.). An application control engine executes outside a virtual machine exposed on a client system, the application control engine configured to enforce application control within the virtual machine according to a set of control policies. When a policy indicates that a specific process is not allowable on the respective client system, the app control engine may prevent execution of the respective process. To assist in data gathering and/or other activities associated with application control, some embodiments temporarily drop a control agent into the controlled virtual machine.

Abstract: Described systems and methods enable performing software audits remotely and automatically, on a relatively large number of client systems (e.g., a corporate network, a virtual desktop infrastructure system, etc.) An audit engine executes on each client system, in a hardware virtualization configuration wherein the audit engine executes outside an audited virtual machine. When receiving an audit request from an audit server, some embodiments of the audit engine drop an audit agent into the audited virtual machine, and remove the audit agent upon completion of the audit.

Abstract: Described systems and methods allow protecting a hardware virtualization system from malicious software. Some embodiments use a hybrid event notification/analysis system, wherein a first component executing within a protected virtual machine (VM) registers as a handler for processor exceptions triggered by violations of memory access permissions, and wherein a second component executing outside the respective VM registers as a handler for VM exit events. The first component filters permission violation events according to a set of rules and only notifies the second component about events which are deemed relevant to security. The second component analyzes notified events to detect malicious software.

Abstract: Described systems and methods allow protecting a host system against malware, using hardware virtualization technology. A memory introspection engine executes at the level of a hypervisor, protecting a virtual machine (VM) from exploits targeting the call stack of a thread executing within the respective VM. The introspection engine identifies a virtual memory page reserved for the stack, but not committed to the stack, and intercepts an attempt to write to the respective page. In response to intercepting the write attempt, the memory introspection engine marks the respective page as non-executable, thus protecting the stack against exploits.

Abstract: Described systems and methods enable enforcing application control remotely and automatically, on a relatively large number of client systems (e.g., a corporate network, a virtual desktop infrastructure system, etc.). An application control engine executes outside a virtual machine exposed on a client system, the application control engine configured to enforce application control within the virtual machine according to a set of control policies. When a policy indicates that a specific process is not allowable on the respective client system, the app control engine may prevent execution of the respective process. To assist in data gathering and/or other activities associated with application control, some embodiments temporarily drop a control agent into the controlled virtual machine.

Abstract: Described systems and methods enable performing software audits remotely and automatically, on a relatively large number of client systems (e.g., a corporate network, a virtual desktop infrastructure system, etc.) An audit engine executes on each client system, in a hardware virtualization configuration wherein the audit engine executes outside an audited virtual machine. When receiving an audit request from an audit server, some embodiments of the audit engine drop an audit agent into the audited virtual machine, and remove the audit agent upon completion of the audit.

Abstract: Described systems and methods enable an efficient analysis of security-relevant events, especially in hardware virtualization platforms. In some embodiments, a notification handler detects the occurrence of an event within a virtual machine, and communicates the respective event to security software. The security software then attempts to match the respective event to a collection of behavioral and exception signatures. An exception comprises a set of conditions which, when satisfied by an <event, entity> tuple, indicates that the respective entity is not malicious. In some embodiments, a part of exception matching is performed synchronously (i.e., while execution of the entity that triggered the respective event is suspended), while another part of exception matching is performed asynchronously (i.e., after the triggering entity is allowed to resume execution).

Abstract: Described systems and methods allow an instruction that violates memory access permissions within a virtual machine to execute natively (i.e., within the respective virtual machine), when such execution is deemed acceptable by security software executing at the level of the hypervisor. In some embodiments, the processor is endowed with a register having a set of control fields (e.g., control bits) that regulate permission overrides. Control fields may be accessible to software via a VM state object such as the VMCS on Intel® platforms.

Abstract: Described systems and methods enable a host system to efficiently perform computer security activities, when operating in a hardware virtualization configuration. A processor is configured to generate a VM suspend event (e.g., a VM exit or a virtualization exception) when software executing within a guest VM performs a memory access violation. In some embodiments, the processor is further configured to save disassembly data determined for the processor instruction which triggered the VM suspend event to a special location (e.g., a specific processor register) before generating the event. Saved disassembly data may include the contents of individual instruction encoding fields, such as Prefix, Opcode, Mod R/M, SIB, Displacement, and Immediate fields on Intel® platforms.

Abstract: Described systems and methods enable a host system to efficiently perform computer security activities, when operating in a hardware virtualization configuration. A processor is configured to generate a VM suspend event (e.g., a VM exit or a virtualization exception) when a guest instruction executing within a guest VM performs a memory access violation. In some embodiments, the processor is further configured to delay generating the VM suspend event until the execution stage of the pipeline for the guest instruction is complete, and to save results of the execution stage to a specific location (e.g. a specific processor register readable by security software) before generating the event.

Abstract: Described systems and methods allow computer security software to access a memory of a host system with improved efficiency. A processor and a memory management unit (MMU) of the host system may be configured to perform memory access operations (read/write) in a target memory context, which may differ from the implicit memory context of the currently executing process. In some embodiments, the instruction set of the processor is extended to include new categories of instructions, which, when called from outside a guest virtual machine (VM) exposed by the host system, instruct the processor of the host system to perform memory access directly in a guest context, e.g., in a memory context of a process executing within the guest VM.

Abstract: Described systems and methods allow protecting a host system from malicious injection of code and/or data. A memory introspection engine operates below an operating system (OS), having higher processor privileges than the OS. The memory introspection engine is configured to selectively block the copying of memory between a source process and a destination process, thus preventing the injection of code and/or data, particularly from or into user-mode processes. To prevent inter-process memory copying, some embodiments hook a native OS function carrying out such copy operations. A subsequent call to the hooked function may either carry out or block the requested copy operation, according to a set of decision criteria based on the identity of the source process and/or the identity of the destination process.

Abstract: Described systems and methods allow protecting a host system against malware, using hardware virtualization technology. A memory introspection engine executes at the level of a hypervisor, protecting a virtual machine (VM) from exploits targeting the call stack of a thread executing within the respective VM. The introspection engine identifies a virtual memory page reserved for the stack, but not committed to the stack, and intercepts an attempt to write to the respective page. In response to intercepting the write attempt, the memory introspection engine marks the respective page as non-executable, thus protecting the stack against exploits.

Abstract: Described systems and methods allow protecting a host computer system from malware, such as return-oriented programming (ROP) and jump-oriented programming (JOP) exploits. In some embodiments, a processor of the host system is endowed with two counters configured to store a count of branch instructions and a count of inter-branch instructions, respectively, occurring within a stream of instructions fetched by the processor for execution. Exemplary counted branch instructions include indirect JMP, indirect CALL, and RET on x86 platforms, while inter-branch instructions consist of instructions executed between two consecutive counted branch instructions. The processor may be further configured to generate a processor event, such as an exception, when a value stored in a counter exceeds a predetermined threshold. Such events may be used as triggers for launching a malware analysis to determine whether the host system is subject to a code reuse attack.

Abstract: Described systems and methods allow protecting a computer system from malware such as viruses, Trojans, and spyware. For each of a plurality of executable entities (such as processes and threads executing on the computer system), a scoring engine records a plurality of evaluation scores, each score determined according to a distinct evaluation criterion. Every time an entity satisfies an evaluation criterion (e.g, performs an action), the respective score of the entity is updated. Updating a score of an entity may trigger score updates of entities related to the respective entity, even when the related entities are terminated, i.e., no longer active. Related entities include, among others, a parent of the respective entity, and/or an entity injecting code into the respective entity. The scoring engine determines whether an entity is malicious according to the plurality of evaluation scores of the respective entity.

Abstract: Described systems and methods allow protecting a host system from malware using virtualization technology. In some embodiments, a memory introspection engine operates below a virtual machine (VM) executing on the host system. The engine is configured to analyze the content of a virtual memory page used by software executing within the VM, and/or to protect the respective content from unauthorized modification, for instance by malware. When the respective content is swapped out of memory, the memory introspection engine injects a page fault into the respective VM, to force a swap-in of the respective content.

Abstract: Described systems and methods allow protecting a computer system from malware, such as viruses and rootkits. An anti-malware component executes within a virtual machine (VM) exposed by a hypervisor executing on the computer system. A memory introspection engine executes outside the virtual machine, at the processor privilege level of the hypervisor, and protects a process executing within the virtual machine by write-protecting a memory page of the respective process. By combining anti-malware components executing inside and outside the respective VM, some embodiments of the present invention may use the abundance of behavioral data that inside-VM components have access to, while protecting the integrity of such components from outside the respective VM.

Abstract: Described systems and methods allow protecting a computer system from malware, such as viruses and rootkits. In some embodiments, a hypervisor configures a hardware virtualization platform hosting a set of operating systems (OS). A memory introspection engine executing at the processor privilege level of the hypervisor dynamically identifies each OS, and uses an protection priming module to change the way memory is allocated to a target software object by the memory allocation function native to the respective OS. In some embodiments, the change affects only target objects requiring malware protection, and comprises enforcing that memory pages containing data of the target object are reserved exclusively for the respective object. The memory introspection engine then write-protects the respective memory pages.