Abstract: Disclosed herein is a system and method for monitoring structures of interest in a host system that is isolated and independent of the CPU and of the operating system. The system does not modify a monitored host's software and operates properly even when the host system has been compromised. The monitor of the present disclosure monitors the integrity of the examined structure by calculating values of the structure, comparing them with expected values, and sending error reports once the discrepancy between these values is detected.

Abstract: A host system integrity monitor for monitoring memory, operating systems, applications, domain manager, and other host system's structures of interest is isolated and independent of the CPU and operating system of commodity systems. The system requires no modifications to the protected (monitored) host's software, and operates correctly even when the host system is compromised. Either arranged as a stand-alone computer on the add-in card which communicates with the monitored host system through the PCI bus, or as the co-processor based monitor located on the motherboard of the host system, or residing on one of the virtual CPU while the monitored system resides on another virtual CPU, or residing within the domain manager of the host system, the monitor monitors the integrity of the examined structure by calculating hash values of the structure, comparing them with expected hash values, and sending error reports once the discrepancy between these values is detected.

Abstract: A host system integrity monitor for monitoring memory, operating systems, applications, domain manager, and other host system's structures of interest is isolated and independent of the CPU and operating system of commodity systems. The system requires no modifications to the protected (monitored) host's software, and operates correctly even when the host system is compromised. Either arranged as a stand-alone computer on the add-in card which communicates with the monitored host system through the PCI bus, or as the co-processor based monitor located on the motherboard of the host system, or residing on one of the virtual CPU while the monitored system resides on another virtual CPU, or residing within the domain manager of the host system, the monitor of the present invention monitors the integrity of the examined structure by calculating hash values of the structure, comparing them with expected hash values, and sending error reports once the discrepancy between these values is detected.