Approaches for protecting sensitive data within a guest operating system

[0001] This application is related to U.S. Pat. No. 8,972,980, application Ser. No. 13/115,354, filed May 25, 2011, which has a priority date of May 28, 2010, entitled “Approaches for Securing an Internet Endpoint using Fine-Grained Operating System Virtualization,” the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes as if fully set forth herein.

[0002] This application is related to U.S. Pat. No. 8,752,047, application Ser. No. 13/223,091, filed Aug. 31, 2011, entitled “Approaches for Automated Management of Virtual Machines for Running Untrusted Code Safely,” the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes as if fully set forth herein.

[0003] This application is related to U.S. non-provisional patent application Ser. No. 13/302,123, filed Nov. 22, 2011, entitled “Approaches for Efficient Physical to Virtual Disk Conversion,” invented by Gaurav Banga et al., the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes as if fully set forth herein.

[0004] Embodiments of the invention relate to protecting sensitive data within a guest operating system executed by a virtual machine.

[0005] Ensuring the security of Internet users and Internet connected devices is one of the grand challenges facing us today. The current state of affairs is very problematic, as our cyber-security infrastructure is easily and routinely subverted by cyber criminals, resulting in great economic loss. Every year brings deeper and more complex dependence by society on our cyber-infrastructure, and yet at the same time the cyber-security problem only worsens as the capabilities of the cyber-criminal mature. In effect, we are building mission-critical dependence into virtually every aspect of human activities on a cyber-infrastructure that is very insecure at its core.

[0006] The current state of our cyber-security infrastructure is due, at least in part, to two fundamental limitations. The first limitation is a fundamental mismatch between the design assumptions made by computer security programmers with how the vast majority of users interact with the cyber-infrastructure (the “Security Model Complexity”) problem. The second limitation is a lack of appropriate isolation of code and data from trusted and untrusted sources in modern computer systems (the “Lack of Isolation” problem). These two limitations of current systems are somewhat orthogonal, but are both very important for securing a computer system. The “Lack of Isolation” problem, in particular, is very important because modern computer devices, such as a PC or cell phone, are typically general purpose devices that execute a vast wide of software from different sources.

[0007] The general purpose capability of modern computing systems is constructed using a layered stack of hardware and software. An example of the layered arrangement of hardware and software that is present in modern computer systems is shown in FIG. 1. At the lowest layer, there is hardware with a small number of basic general purpose programming capabilities. Upon this hardware layer sits the firmware/BIOS which is responsible for, among other things, initializing hardware resources and loading the operating system. The operating system (OS) provides a file system and functionality which may be used by a variety of different applications. On top of the OS layer run the various applications which provide user-visible rich functionality to the computer. The functionality provided by the application layer is typically the primary concern of the computer user.

[0008] One advantage and consequence of the layered nature of modern computer systems is that the various layers may come from different vendors, as long as the layers conform to the specifications governing the layer boundary (which may be based on open or proprietary industry standards). To illustrate an example, in a typical PC today the hardware may be constructed around processor and chipset technology provided by Intel or AMD. The firmware/BIOS may be provided by companies like Insyde, AMI or Phoenix Technologies and may be written to conform to several industry specifications such as UEFI and PI. The operating system (OS) may originate from a company like Microsoft or Apple or may be a flavor of the Linux open source OS. Finally, the applications themselves are usually written to the specification of one of the operating systems and may be provided by one of a large multitude of application vendors.

[0009] Note that some of the applications may themselves have a layered architecture. A web browser, for example, typically includes a browser core and may also download web applications in the form of HTML, JavaScript, and Flash programs from various Internet web sites. The web browser may run these downloaded web applications locally on top of the browser core. A typical web page contains HTML with embedded JavaScript that can change the HTML being rendered by the web browser dynamically based on user actions without having to re-download the web page from the web server. The HTML may also demarcate part of the web page to be rendered by a plugin, which is typically a separate program that is installed on the computer. Plugins are often downloaded from different sources over the World Wide Web. Thus, a modern computer runs code that comes from a variety of different sources. In particular, application programs may originate from literally millions of different sources once we consider the collection of traditional local applications as well as web applications that are downloaded from websites.

[0010] The integrity of a computer system when it runs application code from different sources (or even the same program being run by different users of a shared computer) has traditionally been one of the responsibilities of the OS. The OS uses various hardware and software constructs like virtual memory, processes, and file permissions to prevent code and data belonging to one program (or user) from affecting code and data belonging to another program (or user). This responsibility of the OS to “isolate” programs and data from one another often tends to compete with another responsibility of the OS, which is to allow for co-operation between programs especially between user application programs and system level services such as shared library modules, database services, and other higher-level common OS functionality. These two OS functions, to share and to isolate, require the OS designer to make certain tradeoffs on how much to share and how much to isolate.

[0011] As a result of these design tradeoffs, the resulting implementation of modern operating systems has grown to a complexity such that ensuring the OS has no security issues is impractical. In mature operating systems, the security implementation is typically robust enough to work well for normal programs under normal usage with no adverse impact on the operation of the computer. However, most OS implementations are very large and complex bodies of computer code that may not possess a sufficiently robust security system when interacting with programs that are especially designed to take advantage of less-tested or unvalidated corner cases in the operation of the security subsystem.

[0012] These “security vulnerabilities” are not important for well-behaved programs during typical operation, but are used extensively by cyber criminals to subvert the computer's security subsystems. Once the system's security is subverted, it is generally possible for cyber criminals to run any software under their control on the subverted computer system.

[0013] The Lack of Isolation problem is made worse by the fact that a large amount of code executed by computers today comes from sources outside the computer, some of which have explicit intentions of committing criminal activities. This includes any program downloaded from the Internet or any web site visited by the computer. All downloaded programs (good and bad) have the same OS and library services available to them to use during their operation. Consequently, any program (even malware), can exploit any security vulnerability in the complex OS or web browser environment and subvert the security subsystem that isolates applications from one another. For example, when a user visits a web site, he or she is really running web application code developed by the publisher of the web site. If this web site is malicious, then malware may be executed on the computer. Malware may be designed to exploit a security vulnerability in the web browser to take control of the computer system during subsequent web site visits, e.g., if you visit your bank's web site, your key strokes may be captured and your login/password information for the bank may be transmitted to the malware publisher. Malicious programs may be designed for a variety of purposes, e.g., a malicious program may simply be designed to interfere with the normal operation of a computer rather than extracting useful data from the computer.

[0014] While some computer security professionals may understand the existence of the Lack of Isolation problem, this problem is hard to solve in any practical way because preventing applications from working or communicating with each other tends to conflict with achieving the goal of increasing seamless communication between different local and web applications. There has been some work towards the isolation of web code from different sources being run by a web browser. Modern browsers have attempted to create a level of sandboxing around downloaded web application code in order to isolate downloaded code from the rest of the computer and from each other. However, these models are fairly primitive in their ability to deal with the full gamut of security issues that arise during the course of a typical user's web experience. For example, certain versions of Google's Chrome web browser's sandboxing does not address safety issues arising from downloaded browser plugins and various types of native executables; thus, every computer system running certain versions of Chrome is vulnerable to a zero day exploit attack against Adobe Flash or Microsoft Word as much as if the system was running a less secure or older browser with the same Adobe Flash Plugin or Microsoft Word plugin.

[0015] Web browsers have been burdened with the need to ensure full compatibility to older and non-standard web pages in their efforts to provide superior safety and privacy. For example, web browser programmers have had to make some relaxations in order to correctly render popular web sites that rely on the sharing of information between web sites.

[0016] Last but not least, most web browsers vendors suffer from a huge conflict of interest because their business relies upon monetizing the web browsing habits of their users within their own business processes and with their industry partners. This monetization relies on data about users' browsing habits which is contained in the web cookies that are set and later provided to web servers during the course of web sessions. Companies such as Google and Microsoft have a great interest in learning as much as possible about a person's browsing habits and typically arrange the default privacy settings of web browsers to be advantageous to them (but less than optimal from a security and privacy standpoint). This choice of default privacy and core functionality settings causes web browsers to transfer large amounts of sensitive information from end users' machines to Internet related businesses, such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc., thereby allowing such businesses to better monetize their customer base by offering appropriate products and services and serving targeted ads. These same settings, however, can be leveraged by malicious parties to exploit security vulnerabilities. While all web browsers provide some level of control to the sophisticated user to tune his or her web browser functionality and/or privacy/safety settings to browse more securely, the vast majority of users never change these default settings.

[0017] Some security researchers have also proposed the use of “client virtualization” (also called “Virtualization using a Hypervisor” in the desktop) to solve the Lack of Isolation Problem. In one form of client virtualization, the user runs multiple independent operating systems on their laptop or desktop on multiple virtual machines (VMs) within the client system which have been created using a hypervisor, such as from VMware of Palo Alto, Calif. or Virtual PC, available from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. When client virtualization is used to achieve improved security, different VMs are used to run applications from different sources or of different types. For example, an OS in one VM may be dedicated for accessing the corporate network that the user may be part of and running corporate applications (local and web). Another OS in a second VM might be used by the user to run his or her personal programs and store personal documents. Finally, a different OS in a third VM may be used for general web browsing on the wider Internet and running native executables that may have been downloaded from the Internet. An example of such a solution is XenClient, which is made by Citrix Systems of Ft Lauderdale, Fla.

[0018] The use of classical client virtualization, as discussed above, to solve the general code isolation problem in the context of Internet endpoints suffers from several drawbacks. A first drawback is that there is too much management overhead for the end-user. The end-user has the onus of making the decision as to what VM to use for each activity. Any mistake, intentional or accidental, may subvert the integrity of the system. While many safeguards can be added as a layer on top of the core virtualization technology to help prevent the user from making mistakes, this has not yet been demonstrated to work in a practical and robust fashion.

[0019] An additional drawback is that client virtualization, as described above, suffers from the problem that any VM that is used for general web browsing is just as vulnerable to a security problem as any monolithic system running a single VM while accessing web sites on the general Internet. Therefore, it is quite likely that the VM dedicated to web browsing described in the arrangement above will be subverted by malware eventually. Any subsequent activities in that VM, then, will be compromised.

[0020] Due to these reasons client virtualization has not been used widely to improve the security of computer systems.

[0035] Approaches for providing a guest operating system to a virtual machine are presented herein. In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments of the invention described herein. It will be apparent, however, that the embodiments of the invention described herein may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form or discussed at a high level in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring teachings of embodiments of the invention.

[0036] Embodiments of the invention prevent sensitive data, comprised within an operating system, from being accessed by any malicious party. As used herein, the term “sensitive data” broadly refers to any type of data which is not intended for a wide audience and for which the potential for exploitation exists if such data were to become known by unintended parties. Illustrative, non-limiting examples of sensitive data which may be contained within an operating system include passwords, user specific data (which may include personal data such as social security numbers, names, addresses, etc.), registry keys and related information, and certificates. In addition, certain applications may store sensitive data within an operating system as well.

[0037] Techniques are presented herein for identifying sensitive data within an operating system executed by a client. In particular, approaches will be discussed for identifying sensitive data within a guest operating system executed by a virtual machine running on a client. Also, various approaches for ensuring that no malicious entity can access sensitive data of a guest operating system will be presented.

[0038] A block diagram of client 200 according to one embodiment of the invention is shown in FIG. 2. The term “client,” as broadly used herein, represents any type of Internet endpoint or computer system capable of connecting to a network and executing a virtual machine. Non-limiting, illustrative examples of client 200 include a PC, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a cell phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), and the like.

[0039] In an embodiment, client 200 may correspond to a server. Thus, while use of the term “client” in other contexts might exclude an interpretation that includes a server, as broadly used herein, client 200 may be embodied on a wide variety of machines, one example of such being a server. Thus, as the Applicant may be his or her own lexicographer, as used herein, the term client 200 expressly includes a server. For example, non-limiting, illustrative examples of client 200 include a web server, an application server, a file server, and a cloud server. Indeed, implementing embodiments of the invention upon a server may yield many benefits. The micro-virtualization techniques employed by embodiments provide an efficient, scalable mechanism for (a) reducing the amount of physical memory required by a virtual machine and (b) eliminating the risk of executing untrusted code and/or interpreting untrusted data in accordance with different policies to manage such risk. As such, a device, such as a server, which interacts with (a) numerous sources of untrusted code and/or data and/or (b) two or more corporate entities having different policies towards managing the risk of untrusted code and/or data, may benefit from embodiments of the invention.

[0040] Client 200 includes a number of virtual machines (such as 230, 240, 250, and 260, for example) that execute on hardware 210 of client 200. The various VMs within client 200 may be used for separately executing processes associated with different activities. One such VM, namely “VM0” (i.e., VM0 230 of FIG. 2), is secured so that VM0 may serve as the root of trust with a guaranteed integrity. VM0 may contain core operating system 232 and one or more applications 234. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, VM0 is not accessible over any network, such as the Internet. As shall be explained below, VM0 provides a secure environment in which operating system 232 and one or more applications 234 may execute without risk of exposure to malicious code.

[0041] Other VMs, such as VMs 260, 262, 264, and 266 in FIG. 2, may be created, maintained, and destroyed on-demand using a very efficient micro-virtualizing hypervisor 220. Using efficient micro-virtualization techniques, the latency of starting and stopping activities or applications which run in their own VM in embodiments is very low, thereby providing a practical user experience while employing full OS virtualization.

[0042] Embodiments address and overcome many disadvantages, such as the Lack of Isolation Problem, experienced by modern general purpose computer systems that execute code from different sources and of differing trust levels; nevertheless, embodiments maintain compatibility with current typical real-world usage of computer systems by corporate and non-corporate users. This is so because any activity which is not previously deemed trustworthy is performed in a separate VM by certain embodiments, and so all code which may be potentially malicious is executed in its own VM that is destroyed after its immediate use is ended, thereby preventing any malicious code from effecting any lasting change to a computer system according to an embodiment of the invention.

[0043] In an embodiment of the invention, a special virtual machine, referred to herein as “VM0,” is created to be a trusted and secure portion of a computer system. FIG. 2 depicts VM0 230 according to an embodiment. To achieve the property of being trusted and secure, VM0 230 may be permanently disconnected from any network (i.e., VM0 230 is not connected to any local network or the Internet). Specifically, VM0 230 may not contain any type of networking stack, such as a TCP/IP network stack, and may not have access to any networking hardware that could allow for communication between VM0 230 or any applications 234 executed thereby and the Internet. Thus, to install software onto VM0 230, it is typically required to have physical custody of client 200 and manually install the software onto VM0 230. Note that a client may contain any number of VM0 virtual machines. While FIG. 2 depicts an embodiment comprising a single VM0, other embodiments may comprise two or more VM0s.

[0044] Thus, in certain embodiments, one or more applications 234 executing within VM0 230 do not have any access to a network, must be fully self-contained in their functionality, and must rely only on local code and data for all their functionality. All applications that need to access the network will therefore need to run in a separate virtual machine outside of VM0 230, as shall be described in further detail below. It is envisioned that the software (such as one or more applications 234) running in VM0 230 be selected at the time client 200 is manufactured or first configured for use in a controlled environment. In an embodiment where VM0 230 is never connected to any type of network, such as a TCP/IP network, all common types of network initiated attacks cannot be waged against VM0 230, thereby rendering VM0 230 immune to such attacks and safe as compared to any computer or VM that is connected to the Internet. Also, in an embodiment, VM0 230 may execute a different type of operating system than used by UCVMs (discussed below) in client 200. In this way, VM0 230 would be immune or resistant from attacks that typically affect the guest operating systems running in the UCVMs of client 200.

[0045] In an embodiment where hypervisor 220 is a Type 2 hypervisor, when client 200 is booted, only VM0 230 is started by the BIOS or firmware of client 200. Once VM0 230 is running, VM0 230 can start hypervisor 220 immediately or on demand. In another embodiment, where hypervisor 220 is a type 1 hypervisor, hypervisor 220 is first started by the BIOS when client 200 is booted and VM0 230 is launched by the Hypervisor 220. Hypervisor 220 is a software component that is responsible for creating other VMs which each execute independent instances of the operating system. These additional VMs are instantiated by VM0 230 and/or hypervisor 220 to run any untrusted code or code that needs to access the network. Untrusted code in this context is any code which has not been pre-approved as being trusted by an IT administrator of client 200. The additional VMs may be started “silently” and automatically by client 200, e.g., these VMs are started transparently to the user and without the user having to do anything explicit (note that a user may still manually initiate the creation of a VM in certain embodiments). These additional VMs are also not explicitly visible to the user; instead, all the user sees on the desktop is familiar objects (such as icons, windows, and applications) without any indication that multiple VMs are executing in client 200. Embodiments of the invention follow rules that govern what application activities are assigned to which particular VM. These rules are described below in greater detail.

[0046] In another embodiment (not depicted in FIG. 2), VM0 230 may have a networking stack that is firewalled off from the network using well-tested firewall software, thereby allowing VM0 230 to have access to a computer network. Such an embodiment may only allow connections with a specific Internet system so that the software inside VM0 230 may be updated from a designated update server. For example, the firewall software may only allow VM0 230 to connect to one or more servers associated with the IT administrator of client 200 and may prevent VM0 230 from establishing a connection with any other endpoint on any network.

[0047] In an embodiment, VM0 230 may communicate with other components of client 200 using secure channels. For example, VM0 230 may communicate with other entities in client 200 using a shared memory channel mediated by a hypervisor. Thus, VM0 230 is not isolated from the remainder of client 200, but nevertheless, processes and data within VM0 230 are resistant from external attacks.

[0048] All code responsible for generating a user interface (UI) not associated with an application may be maintained in VM0 230. Consequently, all UI interaction activity with the desktop between a user and software executing on client 200 may take place between the user and VM0 230, which maintains a unified desktop for all applications running in all VMs. Interaction between the user and applications running in VMs other than VM0 230 takes place indirectly via VM0 230. For example, when the user enters a password for a web site whose browser and HTML/JavaScript code is running in an untrusted VM, the password is first directly provided to VM0 230, which then transfers the information to the untrusted VM. Furthermore, the untrusted VM's display is rendered on to a virtualized display, which is then composed into the VM0 230 desktop (as appropriate) by controlling code running in VM0 230. As code executing in VM0 230 is trusted, the user may trust any user interface controls displayed on a screen since all code responsible for rendering the user interface is trusted.

[0049] This approach is quite different from prior systems where often the code that controls the full desktop experience is untrusted. Consequently, if the code responsible for generating the user interface is corrupted by malware, then the user interface may be used as a tool to deceive the user. For example, malware may cause a user interface control to be displayed that requests the user to submit an authentication credential which will be used for improper purposes by the malware. However, this problem is overcome by embodiments of the invention—since all code responsible for rendering user interface controls executes in VM0 in an embodiment, malware is prevented from hijacking or corrupting UI-rendering code.

[0050] To illustrate an embodiment of the invention, consider FIG. 7, which is an illustration of exemplary desktop of client 200 according to an embodiment. As shown in FIG. 7, process 704 is responsible for rendering desktop 706 on a physical display of client 200. Process 714A runs in untrusted VM 714 and does not have complete access to the file system of client 200. When any process inside VM 714 requests access to the file system of client 200, it is intercepted and process 702 is responsible for rendering a window 708 depicting the contents of the file system of client 200. Process 702 has the option of selectively displaying which contents are available to the VM 714 based on policies as set forth by the IT administrator or the user. VM 710 in FIG. 7 that runs the solitaire game is implemented such that the display of VM 710 is a virtualized display, which is then composed into the desktop 706 (as appropriate) by controlling process 704 running in VM0 230. The displays of VMs 712 and 714 are rendered on the desktop 706 in a similar fashion.

[0051] FIG. 2 depicts a legacy virtual machine (LVM) 240 according to an embodiment of the invention. LVM 240 may contain operating system 244. LVM 240 serves as the primary entity being managed by the IT administrator of client 200. As such, LVM 240 provides an environment that is analogous to the managed enterprise OS of corporate computer system in that an IT department may install and maintain various enterprise applications within operating system 244 of LVM 240. In an embodiment, operating system 244 of LVM 240 may correspond to a Microsoft Windows OS or any other general purpose OS such as Linux or Mac OS.

[0052] In an embodiment, LVM 240 is responsible for storing the main file system 242 of client 200. File system 242 may contain the user's profile folder containing the user's settings and files.

[0053] LVM 240 typically only runs infrastructure OS programs and programs that are used for the purpose of managing client 200 and trusted enterprise applications. Other user programs (especially those that involve external components or consume untrusted data) do not run in LVM 240, but instead, run elsewhere in separate VMs (such as a UCVM as described in more detail below).

[0054] In an embodiment, the network access of LVM 240 is restricted to just the corporate network as implemented by firewall VM 250. Firewall VM 250 is a specialized virtual machine that comprises firewall software/applications to restrict network access of VMs running in client 200 to appropriate and/or necessary network access points. Such practice is consistent with the need for only the responsible IT administrator to be capable of connecting to LVM 240 to manage LVM 240 and processes executing therein.

[0055] In one embodiment, LVM 240 and VM0 230 may be implemented in a single virtual machine.

[0056] When a user wishes to run any application that requires access to either a network or untrusted data (untrusted data is any data that originates from outside client 200), the application is run inside a dedicated VM that is created on-demand by hypervisor 220. This dedicated VM is called an Untrusted Code Virtual Machine (or UCVM). FIG. 2 depicts several UCVMs, namely UCVM 260, 262, 264, and 266. A UCVM operates under the assumption that, in general, any code that connects to the network and interacts with arbitrary code executing on an external device may at some point be compromised. This assumption also applies to trusted applications that interact with data originating from outside the computer system executing the trusted application, because such data may, at some point, contain embedded malicious code. To address such possibilities, such applications are executed in a UCVM to prevent any malicious code, inadvertently introduced into the UCVM, from having the capacity to affect any change outside of the UCVM.

[0057] In an embodiment, a UCVM is created by (a) cloning a copy of LVM 240, or a stripped-down version of LVM 240, in memory and (b) providing access to a restricted file system to the newly created UCVM. For example, UCVM 260 comprises restricted file system 260A, UCVM 262 comprises restricted file system 262A, and UCVM 264 comprises restricted file system 264A. Each UCVM possesses its own instance or copy of the operating system, which is isolated and separate from the main operating system (including its code and data) executing within VM0 230 or LVM 240. For example, UCVM 260 comprises operating system 260B, UCVM 262 comprises operating system 262B, and UCVM 264 comprises operating system 264B.

[0058] To provide a low latency user experience, UCVMs may not be booted from scratch each time an application is needed to be started. Instead, a UCVM may be created very quickly by cloning the UCVM from a template VM (with a booted OS) that has been pre-loaded in memory at system boot time. In an embodiment, the template used to clone a UCVM may be selected from templates 238 stored in VM0 230. A variety of techniques can be employed to make this cloning operation as fast as a few 100 milliseconds. Multiple types of templates may be used by a system to create UCVMs depending the nature and type of application(s) to be run inside the UCVM, as discussed in greater detail below in the section entitled “Cloning a UCVM from a Template.”

[0059] Cognitive assist module 236 is software that is responsible for implementing the rules and policies of embodiments as well as helping the user of client 200 in understanding and navigating the security model employed by client 200 on an as-needed basis. Cognitive assist module 236 helps decide what activities run in which UCVMs, including when VMs are created or destroyed, and what kind of access to network and file system resources each UCVM has. Cognitive assist module 236 also helps protect the user, e.g., when a user is fooled by malware running in a UCVM and is in the process of providing some information that they have previously provided to enterprise code running in LVM 240 (for example a password), then cognitive assist module 236 may detect this situation and prevent the user from providing the information (which may be secret corporate information) to the malware.

[0060] Regarding the restricted file system of each UCVM, each UCVM has access to a private copy of a subset of the files in file system 242 on client 200. A UCVM may only have access to those files which the UCVM should need for the correct operation of the application executing therein. For example, user files are usually not required for correct operation of an application executing in a UCVM and thus are not typically exposed to a UCVM. On the other hand, if a UCVM is created as a result of the user wishing to edit a document using an application, such as MS Word, then a copy of the document the user wishes to edit will be provided to the restricted file system of the UCVM at the time the UCVM is created. Advantageously, using UCVM 260 as an example, if a process executing within UCVM 260 makes any changes to any files in restricted file system 260A, then these changes do not impact the files stored in file system 242 maintained in LVM 240 because such changes are only made to restricted file system 260A maintained in the UCVM and are not propagated, without express consent from the user, to file system 242 maintained by LVM 240.

[0061] In a typical use case of a UCVM, the UCVM may run a local application or an individual web page session. When a user is done running the local application or navigates away from a web page to another page with a different Internet URL domain, the corresponding UCVM is destroyed. Any new local application or web application will be run inside a brand new, separate UCVM that is cloned again from a clean UCVM master template. Thus, if there has been any compromise to the UCVM during the course of running some malicious code that was introduced into the UCVM, then the adverse effects of the security breach are isolated to only the affected UCVM and are lost when the UCVM is destroyed.

[0062] For example, assume that a user double-clicks on a MS Word document icon in Windows Explorer. Embodiments create a special UCVM to run the MS Word process. In a particular embodiment, cognitive assist module 236 of VM0 230 may dynamically create the UCVM using a template in one or more templates 238 or use a pre-existing template in memory or on the disk. The template selected by cognitive assist module 236 may be selected based on what activity is to occur within the UCVM, i.e., the selected may be designed to create a UCVM having characteristics that are optimal for running a text editor therein. The created UCVM contains a copy of the operating system as well as a restricted (local) copy of the file system. This local copy of the file system in the UCVM contains all the usual Windows and Program files; however, the user's profile folder in the local copy of the file system contains only the single target MS Word document being opened.

[0063] As another example, assume that three tabs are open in a web browser and further assume that each tab is open at a different web page. In consideration of the code which may be contained or embedded on a web page, each web page may be properly considered a web application. In embodiments of the invention, the code responsible for rendering the user interface (UI) of the web browser runs in VM0 230. On the other hand, executable code for the three web applications runs in three separate UCVMs. A core HTML/JavaScript engine runs in each of the three UCVMs. A copy of the file system within each of the three separate UCVMs does not contain any part of the user's files, as they are not required for the task performed by each UCVM, namely displaying a web page. Thus, each web application (or web page in this example) is completely isolated from the rest of the system.

[0064] In an embodiment, a UCVM may be connected to the Internet according to an access policy determined by the nature of the code running within the UCVM. To illustrate, web pages are typically restricted as per a strict “same origin policy” similar to the rules implemented by modern web browsers. In the “same origin policy,” scripts running on web pages are permitted to access methods and properties of other scripts originating from the same site with no specific restrictions, but are prevented from accessing most methods and properties across web pages on different sites. Untrusted native applications running outside of the web browser are restricted by default to be able to connect only to the domain from which the program was downloaded (and to specific content delivery networks (CDNs) that may be in use by the domain in question).

[0065] This level of network access for downloaded applications can be explicitly changed (increased or decreased) by a centralized or distributed service or by the end-user to include additional sites on the Internet. End-user control over what a UCVM can connect to may be subject to certain limitations related to corporate networks and sensitive web sites (such as a bank and web mail provider). For example, any code running in a UCVM may not, in general, access any site on a corporate Intranet to which client 200 is connected. Applications that need to connect to the corporate Intranet may need to be signed by the IT administrator of the domain. Similarly, non-web untrusted application code in a general UCVM may not connect to a web site associated with a search engine or bank or other sites that may have been previously identified as being “off limits.” These connections can only be made through a web browser (which spawns UCVMs bound to these special domains) or from a special purpose LVM called a VVM, which described in further detail below.

[0066] In an embodiment, there is no communication channel available for an application running in one UCVM to communicate with an application running in another UCVM. Thus, applications running in UCVMs are completely isolated from each other and from the other applications in the system. This is well suited for running downloaded third party local applications which are generally designed to be self-contained or for Internet applications (web pages are not supposed to rely on any communication between applications within the web browser). In an alternate embodiment, communication between an identified set of virtual machines can be enabled by a person with sufficient privileges, such as an IT administrator for client 200.

[0067] A UCVM may be instantiated so that a specific type of processing may be safely executed therein. To illustrate, each time a process needs to interact with a particular untrusted network port, the process may be executed within a newly instantiated UCVM having characteristics appropriate for such communication. Similarly, if an untrusted USB drive is connected to client 200, any communication between client 200 and the untrusted USB drive may take place in a newly instantiated UCVM specifically tailored for that purpose.

[0068] In an embodiment, the implementation of the network access restrictions is done in a dedicated VM called a firewall VM. FIG. 2 depicts an exemplary firewall VM 250 of an embodiment. Firewall VM 250 runs an isolated operating system with a dedicated and fixed set of firewall applications that implement the network access policy for all VMs in client 200 (except perhaps VM0 230, which may not have any network access). Firewall VM 250 may provide, to any virtual machine running on client 200 in which untrusted code is executed or untrusted data is being interpreted, restricted access to only those network resources deemed necessary on an as-needed basis in accordance with a policy described by policy data stored on client 200.

[0069] In another embodiment of the invention, the firewall functionality of the system may be co-located and implemented inside either the hypervisor 220 of FIG. 2, or inside the LVM 240 of FIG. 2 (working in conjunction with the hypervisor 220 of FIG. 2), or inside VM0 230 of FIG. 2 (working in conjunction with the hypervisor 220 of FIG. 2).

[0070] UCVMs may not appropriate to run local applications that interact heavily with each other using local APIs such as COM, as typically there is no communication channel available for an application running in one UCVM to communicate with an application running in another UCVM. Embodiments may employ one (or more) special UCVMs called a Validated Virtual Machine (VVM) for the purpose of running relatively trusted local applications that have complex interactions between the applications. Such complex interactions are common in enterprise frameworks containing multiple applications, such as Microsoft's Office Suite and IBM's Lotus Notes.

[0071] FIG. 2 depicts an exemplary VVM 266 of an embodiment. Note that while FIG. 2 depicts a single VVM for ease of explanation, other embodiments of the invention may employ two or more VVMs or no VVMs based upon the particular needs of the user and/or policies of the organization responsible for or the owner of client 200.

[0072] In an embodiment, applications need to be signed and configured for co-location in the same VM by an administrator of client 200 before they can run in VVM 266. Inside VVM 266, signed applications can interact with each other using all types of APIs and frameworks supported by the OS being used. In an embodiment, the default network access policy of a VVM is to allow access to a corporate network only. The IT administrator may increase or decrease this level of access, subject to certain restrictions.

[0073] In an embodiment, specific signed applications or suites (groups of applications) that originate from a trusted source (other than the enterprise) may also be designated to run together in a particular VVM responsible for applications originating from that source. For example, all non-corporate applications that are signed by a specific vendor may be run together in a single VVM. These applications would then be isolated from corporate applications and general untrusted applications, but not from one another. A specific network access rule that is more permissive than the “same origin policy” used for web applications and unsigned applications may be used for a VVM. The restricted copy of file system 242 exposed to a VVM is similar to that exposed to a generic UCVM in that the restricted copy of file system 242 exposed to a VVM comprises only those files related to, or required for, performance of the applications executing within the VVM.

[0074] FIG. 3 is block diagram of the functional components involved in exposing a restricted copy of file system 242 to different UCVMs (and VVMs) according to an embodiment of the invention. File System Switch 310 is software that is configured to provide the newly created UCVM with access to a copy-on-write clone of the OS image that the UCVM was created from once the UCVM has started. The minimal operating system and program files 330 in the copy-on-write clone may be created from either the corporate LVM OS image 320 or a separate generic stripped down OS image 322 which may be created by the IT administrator.

[0075] Furthermore, a newly created UCVM is provided a copy of necessary user files 340, which are a subset of the user files in file system 242. The composition of necessary user files 340 will be different for each user. The set of files comprising the user files in file system 242 maintained in LVM 240 are typically those files in the user's home folder, e.g., c:\Users\<username>. The particular copies of files that are provided to a particular UCVM as necessary user files 340 are the minimum set of files that are needed by that UCVM to accomplish what the user intended to do as captured when the target application was being invoked. For example, if the user double clicked on a specific MS Word file named ABC.docx at the location c:\Users\<username>\Documents in the file system 240 maintained in LVM 240, then necessary user files 340 would only include a copy-on-write clone of the ABC.docx file and only this copy-on-write clone of the ABC.docx file is made available in the virtual c:\Users\<username>\Documents folder made visible to the newly created UCVM running the MS Word application. If a program (like MS Word) was started without any association with a file, then necessary user files 340 would correspond to an empty c:\Users\<username>\Documents virtual folder.

[0076] Any application running in a UCVM therefore only has access to the particular set of user files provided explicitly by the user when the program was invoked. Subsequently, if the user wants to browse file system 242 for another file from within the application (for example, by using the File→Open menu item of MS Word), then he or she will see a restricted user files directory.

[0077] To enable the user to select files from the user's own User Files folder in file system 242 maintained in LVM 240 using an application executing within an UCVM, a user interface may be provided to allow the user to browse his or her files in file system 242, select one or more of the user files, and expose a copy of the selected files to the appropriate UCVM. For example, FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the steps involved in a UCVM obtaining a copy of a new user file maintained in file system 242 according to an embodiment of the invention. In step 410, a special file is provided to each UCVM. The special file may be provided to the UCVM in a number of different ways, e.g., the special file may be inserted into each folder of the virtual C:\Users\<username> directory provided to each UCVM. This special file may be named something akin to “Show All My Files” or the like, as its selection will be used to trigger exposing additional copy-on-write clones of files stored in file system 242 to the UCVM.

[0078] In step 420, File System Switch 310 detects when the special file is selected by the user. For example, when a program executing within a UCVM browses to the special file, presumably as a result of a user click, this action may be trapped by File System Switch 310.

[0079] In step 430, File System Switch 310 invokes a dialog with LVM 240 that allows the user to browse the full file system 242 maintained in LVM 240. The user may then select a file or folder in file system 242. Note that at this stage, the user may be granted read access to the full file system 242 for purposes of selecting a file or folder, but the user is not granted write access to file system 242. Therefore, the user is prevented from modifying file system 242 maintained by LVM 240 in any way.

[0080] In step 440, after the user selects a file or folder, a copy of the selected file or folder is created. The copy of the selected file or folder is then inserted into the restricted file system associated with the UCVM. As a result of inserting the copy of the selected file or folder in the restricted file system associated with the UCVM, an application executing in the UCVM may have read and write access to the copy of the selected file or folder in the virtual file system, but is prevented from effecting any change to the original copy of the selected file or folder in file system 242 maintained by LVM 240.

[0081] The steps of FIG. 4 ensure that files in file system 242 maintained by LVM 240 are not visible to a UCVM without explicit permission from the user. Malicious code running in a UCVM, for example, cannot programmatically access files in file system 242 in LVM 240. Further, malicious code running in a UCVM also cannot render a false user interface to trick the user into unintentionally providing any user files to the malicious code, since all code responsible for rendering the user interface is maintained within VM0 230, and thus, unreachable by the malicious code.

[0082] File System Switch 310 may be implemented in a variety of ways. For example, in one embodiment, File System Switch 310 may be implemented by a network file system protocol (NFS or CIFS may be used). A special VM (or LVM 240) may be used as the OS serving the “User Files” shared file system. Other VMs “mount” this shared file system using NFS or CIFS (or another network file system) from the hosting VM. Application software in the hosting VM may decide what files are exposed to which VM based on instructions provided by VM0 230.

[0083] In another embodiment, File System Switch 310 may be implemented, in part, by a proprietary protocol for handling communications between the different UCVMs and File System Switch 310. File System Switch 310, in such an embodiment, may be implemented as part of a special VM or in LVM 240.

[0084] In an embodiment of the invention, every virtual machine created in client 220 is instantiated using a template selected from one or more templates 238 stored in VM0 230. In an embodiment, a template may be either immutable or may be updated in a very controlled fashion.

[0085] Each of one or more templates 238 may be used to instantiate or create a virtual machine with different characteristics or operational parameters. The characteristics or operational parameters described by a template may be configured, tailored, or suited for a particular context or type of processing activity. For example, each template may specify what type of code is to be run within a virtual machine created using the template, a size of the virtual machine created using the template, firewall settings for the virtual machine created using the template, what type of virtual machine (for example, a VVM, UCVM, or a LVM) is the be created using the template, how changes to a local file system within the virtual machine created using the template are to be persisted, and what portion, if any, of the network can a virtual machine created using the template access.

[0086] One or more devices internal to client 200 or externally connected to client 200 may interact with one or more processes executing in a virtual machine within client 200. In an embodiment, a template may assign responsibility for a selected set of devices to a virtual machine created using the template. In other embodiments, responsibility for a selected set of devices may be assigned to a particular virtual machine by virtue of policy data stored on client 200. Such policy data may describe one or more policies provided to client 200 from an owner or responsible organization of client 200. Policy data of this nature may be maintained by VM0 230 or LVM 240, for example, in certain embodiments.

[0087] In an embodiment, one or more templates 238 may be arranged in a hierarchy such that there is a root node corresponding to a template having a default set of characteristics. The root node may have one or more child nodes, and each of these child nodes may be associated with a template that inherits the properties of the parent template, but contains additional or changes properties associated with that child node. Naturally, each child node may also have children, and so the hierarchy of templates may be an arbitrary number of levels deep, where each template inheriting characteristics of its parent, but yet each template is capable of further defining or changing characteristics that distinguishes the template over its parent.

[0088] Branches of the hierarchy of templates may be associated with, or more particularly suited, different types of activity. For example, certain templates may be associated with corporate activity, and may therefore specify characteristics related to virtual machines running corporate applications. Similarly, certain templates may be associated with the user's personal application's activity or Internet/Web related activity, and may therefore specify characteristics related to virtual machines running the user's own applications or Internet/Web applications respectively.

[0089] FIG. 5 is an illustration of instantiating a plurality of different virtual machines using different templates according to an embodiment of the invention. In FIG. 5, CVM-0 represents a template that defines a virtual machine having characteristics suitable for running a corporate application, PVM-0 represents a template that defines a virtual machine having characteristics suitable for running a user application (non-corporate), and WVM-0 represents a template that defines a virtual machine having characteristics suitable for running an Internet application. Other embodiments of the invention may define a variety of other templates to define different types of templates. In the example of FIG. 5, cognitive assist module 236 in VM0 230 may use CVM-0 to instantiate one or more corporate virtual machines, such as CVM-1, CVM-2, etc. Similarly, cognitive assist module 236 may use PVM-0 to instantiate one or more personal (non-corporate) virtual machines, such as PVM-1, PVM-2, etc., and cognitive assist module 236 may use WVM-0 to instantiate one or more web-based virtual machines, such as WVM-1, WVM-2, etc. As depicted in FIG. 5, each instantiated UCVM connects to an external network through Firewall VM 250. Cognitive assist module 236 can either create these templates on demand or create and store them while monitoring the usage of the client.

[0090] After-market software typically is installed on a computer system. Such after-market software generally falls into one of two categories, namely (a) validated software (packages or straight executables) installed by the IT administrator or (b) end-user installed software (including web browser plugins & extensions).

[0091] In embodiments of the invention, installation of validated software is performed as is normally performed today. The IT administrator can manage corporate validated software using embodiments using similar procedures as performed today, except that such corporate validated software are installed in LVM 240 (or if need be, VVM 266).

[0092] With respect to end-user installed software, IT administrators have two choices for how they would like to handle this type of installation using embodiments of the invention. The first choice is for the IT administrator to lock down client 200 by disallowing any installation of end-user installed software. While this is a safer operating decision, this approach may reduce the end-user's productivity because the end user cannot take advantage of applications that may be otherwise useful that have not yet been validated by the IT administrator. The IT administrator may provide installation support on an individual and as-needed basis whenever a user wishes to install any end-user installed software; however, doing so will increase the cost of support by the IT administrator.

[0093] The second choice is for the IT administrator to allow the user to install end-user installed software him or herself using features provided by embodiments of the invention. End-user installed software may include browser plugins, browser extensions, signed and unsigned installation packages, and straight executables. Browser plugins are installed into an installed browser plugin database that is maintained in a particular UCVM. The installed browser plugin database may be implemented, in an embodiment, using file and registry diff store 820 shown in FIG. 8, which is an illustration of safely installing an untrusted application according to an embodiment of the invention of the invention. During installation of a plugin, the installed browser plugin database is also updated to record the domain that was used to initiate the plugin install. Presumably, this is the web page that contains an element or component that requires the plugin to render the complete content in the web page. Subsequently, the web browser loads an installed plugin into a web HTML/JS engine instance (which runs inside a UCVM) only if the domain of the web page to be displayed by the UCVM matches a domain, recorded in the plugin database, associated with the installed plugin. A plugin that is used by multiple sites is installed only once, but is associated with multiple domains. Popular plugins like Flash may be pre-installed in certain embodiments.

[0094] Browser extensions may be installed into a web browser's extension database that is maintained in a particular UCVM. During runtime, browser extensions are treated like web applications in that each browser extension is run inside its own UCVM. In an embodiment, the web browser extension database and the installed browser plugin database may be implemented in the same database in a single UCVM.

[0095] Signed installation packages may be run and the resulting installation may update either the LVM image or the Generic Windows image based on a policy set by the IT administrator.

[0096] Unsigned installation packages go through a virtual install. The virtual installation of unsigned installation packages will be described with reference to FIG. 8, which is an illustration of safely installing an untrusted application according to an embodiment of the invention of the invention. A registry and program files change set is created and stored in file and registry diff store 820. Start-menu and desktop changes by the installer are captured in a special folder which contains desktop and start menu items for all user-installed applications. Subsequently, if an unsigned application is run, it is run in a UCVM cloned from the Generic Windows image all by itself. Virtual disk 810 in FIG. 8 is the normal virtual disk of the UCVM. DiffStore 820, which further virtualizes the file system and the registry as seen by the applications of UCVM, is typically implemented as a separate module outside of the normal block level virtual disk store.

[0097] Signed and unsigned executables may be run in a UCVM. Such a UCVM may be created on demand and destroyed after its use is ended by embodiments.

[0098] A web cookie (or simply “cookie”) is a piece of text stored on a user's computer by their web browser. A cookie can be used for authentication, storing web site preferences, shopping cart contents, the identifier for a server-based session, or anything else that can be accomplished through storing text data.

[0099] While the actual cookie itself is not visible to the user, the user would notice a difference in the user experience of interacting with a web site if cookies could not be saved between visits to the web site. Accordingly, embodiments of the invention provide mechanism to store cookies before a UCVM is destroyed, so that the next time the user visits the web site using a web browser running in a different UCVM, any cookies that have been stored and are associated with that web site may be injected into the new UCVM.

[0100] Similarly, to provide the best user experience, it would be advantageous to carry over the cache of a web browser for a particular web domain from one UCVM to the next, so that the next time the user visits the web domain using a different UCVM, there is no a delay in displaying content due to an unpopulated cache. Thus, embodiments of the invention provide mechanism to store the web cache of a web browser for a web domain before a UCVM is destroyed, so that the next time the user visits the web site using a web browser running in a different UCVM, the cache of the web browser need not be warmed (i.e., repopulated), as the cache in the new UCVM has been updated to contain all the objects the cache previously contained in the prior, and now destroyed, UCVM used to visit the web domain.

[0101] To provide a concrete example with reference to the example of FIG. 2, assume that a user initially transparently uses UCVM 260 to run a web browser to visit web site A. When UCVM 260 is destroyed, any cookies and cache files are extracted and saved. Thereafter, assume the user transparently uses UCVM 262 to run a web browser to visit web site B. As web site B is hosted by a different web domain than web site A, the previously stored cookies and cache files associated with web site A will not injected into UCVM 262. Thereafter, if UCVM 262 is destroyed, then any cookies and cache files are extracted and saved. At a later point in time, if the user thereafter transparently uses UCVM 264 to run a web browser to visit web site A, then the previously stored cookies and cache files associated with the web domain of web site A will be injected into UCVM 264. This allows the web browser running in UCVM 264 to visit web site A to appear, to the user, to have the same state of the prior web browser used to visit web site A, even though different virtual machines are used between visits. Note that no portion of the file system is saved between visits to a web site; only the state of the web session is saved.

[0102] In one embodiment, the cookies and cache information is captured in Diff Store 820 associated with the URL of the website. In each visit to the same URL, the UCVM utilizes the same Diff Store presenting the cookies and caches to the UCVM. In another embodiment, the cookies and cache files can be captured at the end of the session and saved to the client system's core file system in a special folder. On visiting the same URL again, the cookies and cache can be re-injected into the file system of the UCVM.

[0103] Platform virtualization is performed on a given hardware platform by host software (a control program), which creates a simulated computer environment, termed “a virtual machine,” for its guest software. A hypervisor, also called virtual machine manager (VMM), is one of many hardware virtualization techniques that allow multiple operating systems, termed “guests,” to run concurrently on a host computer. The hypervisor presents to the guest operating systems a virtual operating platform and manages the execution of the guest operating systems. A guest OS executes as if it was running directly on the physical hardware. Access to physical system resources such as the network access, display, keyboard, and disk storage is suitably virtualized so that a guest OS does not know that these are virtual devices.

[0104] Generally, there are two types of hypervisors. Type 1 (or native, bare metal) hypervisors run directly on the host's hardware to control the hardware and to manage guest operating systems. A guest operating system thus runs on another level above the hypervisor. Type 2 (or hosted) hypervisors run within a conventional operating system environment. With the hypervisor layer as a distinct second software level, guest operating systems run at the third level above the hardware. In other words, Type 1 hypervisor runs directly on the hardware; a Type 2 hypervisor runs on another operating system, such as Windows. Embodiments of the invention may use any type of hypervisor. Thus, hypervisor 220 in FIG. 2 may either be a Type 1 or a Type 2 hypervisor.

[0105] A virtual disk image (or simply “a virtual disk”) is a file on a physical disk, which has a well-defined (published or proprietary) format and is interpreted by a hypervisor as a hard disk. A virtual disk image may have a specific file type extension, e.g., .vmdk for VMware VMDK, .vhd for Xen and Microsoft Hyper-V, and .vdi for Oracle VM VirtualBox.

[0106] There are two approaches employed for storage allocation by prior hypervisors, namely, (1) pre-allocate the entire storage for the virtual disk upon creation and (2) dynamically grow the storage on demand. In the former approach involving pre-allocation, the virtual disk may be implemented as either split over a collection of flat files (typically one is at least 2 GB in size) or as a single, large monolithic flat file. In the latter approach involving on-demand growth, the virtual disk may also be implemented using split or monolithic files, except that storage is allocated on demand.

[0107] There are two modes in which a disk can be mapped for use by a virtual machine. In a virtual mode, the mapped disk is presented as if it is a logical volume, or a virtual disk file, to the guest operating system and its real hardware characteristics are hidden. In a physical mode, also called the pass through mode, the hypervisor bypasses the I/O virtualization layer and passes all I/O commands directly to the disk.

[0108] A virtual machine (VM) is a software implementation of a machine (i.e. a computer) that executes programs like a physical machine. Virtual machines allow the sharing of the underlying physical machine resources between different virtual machines, each running its own operating system. The software layer providing the virtualization is called a hypervisor, such as hypervisor 220 in FIG. 2.

[0109] Virtual machines each require their own image of the operating system. The guest OS and host OS typically do not share the OS image, even if they are the same OS. This is problematic for several reasons. First, if a user wishes to run 10 different virtual machines, then she will require 10 different copies of the OS for the guest OSs, which requires an undesirable amount of storage to maintain. Second, the OS for a VM has to be created either by installing a new OS or shipping a copy of the OS from somewhere else, which is burdensome for those who do not have access to OS images. Further, it is also time consuming to install a new OS or ship an OS image, which is typically quite large. A third problem is that any software present in the host OS (such as a printer driver) will not be available in a guest OS unless it is installed again.

[0110] Embodiments of the invention enable a guest operating system to be provided to a virtual machine in a manner that overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art, such as requiring a separate operating system to be installed for each virtual machine. FIG. 6A is an illustration of a virtual disk stack according to an embodiment. FIG. 6A depicts a virtual disk stack comprising one or more physical disks 610 upon which a host operating system 620 is installed. Virtual disk 630 is a physical file stored on one or more physical disks 610 that is interpreted by a virtual machine as a physical disk.

[0111] The illustration of FIG. 6A will be referenced below in the discussion of FIG. 6B, which is a flowchart illustrating the functional steps of providing a guest operating system to a virtual machine according to an embodiment of the invention. In an embodiment, the guest operating system provided to a virtual machine is read by the virtual machine from virtual disk 630. It is noted that each step of FIG. 6B may be performed programmatically, i.e., each step of FIG. 6B may be performed by a software entity.

[0112] In step 660 of FIG. 6B, a physical disk that contains a system partition and a boot partition is identified. The physical disk containing the system partition and the boot partition may be one of the one or more physical disks 610 in FIG. 6A. As used herein, a system partition is a disk partition that contains the operating system files. For example, in a Microsoft Windows environment, the disk partition would contain the Windows operating system files (e.g., the Windows directory). As used herein, a boot partition is the disk partition that contains the bootloader. The boot partition may be identified by an API call and an examination of the BootIndicator flag, while the system partition may be identified by an examination of environment variables. The system partition may be, but need not be, different from the boot partition, although they are often on the same partition (such as drive C:).

[0113] A system partition may be identified by examining the drive letter of a volume on which host operating system 620 is installed using an exposed API. Alternately, the system partition may be identified by examining certain environment variables, such as SystemDrive, SystemRoot, or WinDir, for example. Boot partitions may be identified using an exposed API, e.g., by examining a BootIndicator field of the partition layout data structure using the Windows API.

[0114] In step 662, information about the physical layout of the one or more physical disks 610 is obtained. To illustrate, in performing step 662, information identifying a list of partitions on the one or more physical disks 610 may be determined.

[0115] In step 664, certain partitions of the one or more physical disks 610 are mapped to a set of volumes to be included in virtual disk 630. In step 664, each volume that is going to be included in virtual disk 630 is mapped to a partition on one or more physical disks 610 so that the exact starting offset and the size for each volume to be included in virtual disk 630 is known.

[0116] In step 666, a determination is made as to whether any additional volumes should be included in the set of volumes that are to be included in virtual disk 630. Digital content such as program files and user files may be stored in a variety of locations. If the location where such program files and/or user files are stored is on a different volume of a physical disk other than those identified in step 664, then this volume should be included in virtual disk 630. Such locations may be identified using a variety of different means, e.g., by examining system environment variables such as ProgramFiles, ProgramData, or UserProfiles, or by querying an operating system API.

[0117] In step 668, a read-only copy of the set of volumes to be included in virtual disk 630 is created. After creation, the read-only copy of the set of volumes is stored on one or more physical disks 610.

[0118] In one embodiment, the read-only copy of the set of volumes to be included in virtual disk 630 may be created using a Shadow Copy. Shadow Copy (Volume Snapshot Service or Volume Shadow Copy Service or VSS) is a technology included in Microsoft Windows that allows taking manual or automatic backup copies or snapshots of data (termed “shadow copies”) on a specific volume at a specific point in time over regular intervals. The Volume Shadow Copy Service operates at the block level of the file system.

[0119] The Volume Shadow Copy Service technology may require that the file system implemented by the host operating system be NTFS (New Technology File System, the standard file system for Microsoft's operating systems) to be able to create and store shadow copies. Shadow Copies can be created on local and external (removable or network) volumes by any Windows component that uses this technology, such as when creating a scheduled Windows Backup or automatic System Restore point.

[0120] Shadow copies traditionally have two primary purposes. First, shadow copies allow for the creation of a consistent backup of a volume, ensuring that the contents cannot change while the backup is being made. Second, shadow copies avoid problems with file locking By creating a read-only copy of a volume, backup programs are able to access every file without interfering with other programs writing to those same files. Thus, shadow copies may be created regardless of what locks are present on data within a volume. Through the integration between the Volume Shadow Copy Service, hardware or software VSS providers, application level writers and backup applications, VSS enables integral backups that are point in time and application level consistent without the backup tool having knowledge about the internals of each application. The end result is similar to a versioning file system, allowing any file to be retrieved as it existed at the time any of the snapshots was made.

[0121] In step 670, a copy of the master boot record (MBR) for the set of volumes to be included in virtual disk 630 is stored. The MBR is a type of boot sector. Embodiments may be used with a wide variety of MBRs and are not limited for use with one type of MBR. For example, the copy of the MBR stored in step 670 may correspond to a Basic or Dynamic Disk with either MBR or GUID style partitioning. The MBR contains a partition table and code for initiating the booting process of host operating system 620.

[0122] A MBR cannot be shadow copied, and so in an embodiment it is contemplated that in step 670 a physical byte-to-byte copy is created and stored on one or more physical disks 610. The copy of the MBR may be stored in association with the read-only copy of the set of volumes made in step 668. The size of the MBR may be determined as an offset of the first partition of one or more physical disks 610, which may be larger than necessary, but avoids the concern about missing any data stored in this drive space by OEMs. Note that certain embodiments may configure the MBR copy to omit entries for partitions which are not relevant to the virtual machine template, e.g., the OEM recovery partition. Such configuration of the MBR copy may be performed by mapping zeros over the entries or by omitting the virtual disk extents mapping this area of the physical disk.

[0123] In step 672, virtual disk 630 is created based on the read-only copy of the set of volumes and the MBR stored in step 670. In an embodiment, virtual disk 630 is a file, physically stored on one or more physical disks 610, that conforms to a well-defined (published or proprietary) format which allows the file to be interpreted by a hypervisor as a hard disk.

[0124] In the VMDK file format, virtual disks can be described as a set of extents, which are a contiguous set of disk sectors. A particular extent of a virtual disk can be mapped to a variety of different storage devices, such as hard-drive device, a volume device, or a file on a host file system, to name a few examples. To access the shadow copy created by VSS, a VDMK extent is mapped to a device using the device name that VSS assigns to that particular shadow copy. For example, a typical VMDK may indicate an extent from sector 0 to sector 2047 is mapped to win7.mbr on a local file system, an extent from sector 2048 to sector 2000000 is mapped to VSS shadow copy device \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy8, and an extent from sector 2000001 to 2000002 is ZERO (the virtual machine will interpret these sectors as empty if they are accessed).

[0125] In VMDK, one cannot specify a particular extent's offset—only the size can be specified. Thus, to match the layout of a physical drive being virtualized, the extent that corresponds to a volume on a physical disk that was not considered worthless to be made accessible in a virtual machine, still needs to be present in the VMDK description; however, the type of such extent will be specified as ZERO to indicate that this extent occupies the space but is not mapped to any storage device.

[0126] Another situation when a ZERO extent may be used by an embodiment is when the operating system uses some sectors in the end of a partition for its own purposes. In this case, the size of the partition reported by the operating system API will be N, but the offset of the next partition will be N+X, where X is the amount of sectors reserved by the operating system. A ZERO extent of size X may be specified in the VMDK description of the virtual disk to account for this difference, as shall be explained below.

[0127] According to one embodiment, for any volumes in virtual disk 630 which had a corresponding read-only copy (such as a shadow copy) created in step 668, the volume in virtual disk 630 is described as a read-only extent having a type of FLAT and which references the corresponding read-only copy. For example, the boot and system volumes in virtual disk 630 may be implemented as a read-only extent have a type of FLAT and which references the corresponding read-only copy. For any other volume in virtual disk 630 which did not have a corresponding read-only copy (such as a shadow copy) created in step 668, the volume in virtual disk 630 is described as a read-only extent having a type of ZERO.

[0128] In an embodiment, if the partition start offset of virtual disk 630 is greater than an offset calculated by the partition start offset and size of the partition identified in step 660, then the different is accounted for using an extent. In such a case, a read-only extent is created that has a type of ZERO and a size equal to the difference between the partition start offset of virtual disk 630 and the calculated offset.

[0129] Advantageously, virtual disk 630 of FIG. 6A allows for many guest OSs running on the same host to share the same installed copy of an operating system as the host OS. To illustrate, as shown in FIG. 6A, guest OS 650 and 652 may each access virtual disk 630. Virtual disk 630, in turn, may contain a copy of host OS 620. However, virtual disk 630 is constructed using a single copy of an operating system that is physically stored and installed upon one or more physical disks 610. Thus, virtual machine 654 and virtual machine 656 may each execute a guest OS without the need to install a new operating system for those virtual machines.

[0130] VSS shadow copies may be created fast and efficiently. Thus, in an embodiment employing VSS shadow copies, the read-only copies of the one or more volumes created in step 668 is performed quickly and efficiently. Also, the creation of virtual disk 630 using the read-only copy of the one or more volumes is also a very fast operation. As a result, virtual machines (having a guest operating system of the same type as the host operating system) can be created very quickly and efficiently.

[0131] Shadow copies may also be maintained cheaply by certain operating systems, such as the MS Windows, by maintaining data about the changes made to a volume since the time a shadow copy was made for that volume. Hence, the disk usage of multiple virtual machines may be reduced substantially.

[0132] Since a VSS shadow copy contains all the software the user has installed on the machine at the time of the creation of the VSS shadow copy, virtual disk 630 that is created using a VSS shadow copy also receives access to all the software present in the VSS shadow copy. Moreover, the version of the software, including any patches installed, is exactly the same as in the original volume being shadow copied. In addition, user documents present in the original volume being shadow copied are also present in virtual disk 630, and therefore, visible to virtual machines which perform read operations against virtual disk 630. Thus, virtual disk 630 of an embodiment is an accurate point-in-time copy of host physical disk.

[0133] In certain embodiments, a ‘Delta Store Disk’ may be comprised within the virtual disk stack. FIG. 6C is an illustration of a virtual disk stack according to another embodiment of the invention. A delta store disk is a mechanism that may be used to capture all the changes being made to virtual disk 630. Such an approach is advantageous because, as explained above, VSS shadow copies are read-only. Thus, even though virtual disk 630 may be constructed using a read-only copy of one or more volumes of physical disk(s) 610, write operations performed by a virtual machine may be simulated using a delta store disk.

[0134] This technique may be illustrated in a description of optional step 674 of FIG. 5B. In optional step 674, one or more results of the virtual machine performing write operations against the virtual disk are stored in a delta store disk. For example, the results of write operations performed by virtual machine 654 against virtual machine 630 may be stored at delta store disk 640. Note that each delta store disk is associated with a particular virtual machine and only stores changes made to virtual disk 630 by that virtual machine. In this way, the results of write operations performed by virtual machine 656 against virtual machine 630 are stored at delta store disk 642.

[0135] When a virtual machine performs a read operation against virtual disk 630, the virtual machine initially attempts to perform the read operation against data stored at an associated delta store disk. If the attempt to perform the read operation at the associated delta store disk is not successful, then the virtual machine performs the read operation against the virtual disk 630. For purposes of providing a concrete example, assume that virtual machine 656 is performing a read operation against virtual disk 630. Initially, to perform this read operation, virtual machine 656 will attempt to perform the read operation against delta store disk 642. In this way, if virtual machine 656 had previously updated the value of what is being read to deviate from virtual disk 630, then the read operation will be performed by reading the updated value, rather than the original value present on virtual disk 630. If the read operation performed against delta store disk 642 is not successful, then this means that virtual machine 656 never stored an updated value for data being read by this read operation, and therefore, the read operation is performed against virtual disk 642.

[0136] In an embodiment, the changes stored at a delta store disk correspond to updated blocks of virtual disk 630. In other embodiments, the changes stored at a delta store disk correspond to updated files stored on virtual disk 630.

[0137] The virtual machine environment of virtual machine 654 is different from the physical machine environment on which host operating system 620 is installed. For example, virtual machine 654 may not have need or access as many physical devices as host operating system 620 or such devices may be replaced by generic virtualized versions. Also, host operating system 620 may be running certain services or programs that are not required by virtual machine 654.

[0138] Therefore, in an embodiment, to optimize virtual disk 630 for running on a particular virtual machine, prior to use by the virtual machine, the virtual disk 630 image may be updated to disable or remove unneeded or unnecessary features and/or optimize other aspects in view of the intended use of the virtual machine. For example, in the virtual disk 630, devices that are not needed by a virtual machine may be disabled, such as a fingerprint scanner. For devices in the virtual disk 630 image that are replaced with a generic virtualized device, the corresponding device entries will be updated with an identifier for the virtual device, such as a VID/PID combination. In case the drive for such devices is not present within the host operating system 620 image, the driver binary may be introduced into the virtual disk 630 image.

[0139] As another example of optimizations which may be performed in the virtual disk 630 image, a majority of the services within the operating system may be disabled. The process of identification of services to disable may employ one or more of a whitelist, a blacklist, and a heuristic. Whitelists may identify services that are well known and are essential for proper execution of the virtual machine, while blacklists may identify services that are not essential or required for proper execution of the virtual machine. Heuristics may be used to disable third party services in the operating system (i.e., software that is not made by the manufacturer of the operating system). Additional examples of optimizations includes the removal of desktop gaskets and tasks scheduled with Task Scheduler as well removing certain autorun programs (such as IM clients, OSD and other OEM proprietary software) from autorun.

[0140] Additionally, as an option to improve security, in certain embodiments, certain types of user data may be deleted from the virtual disk 630 image.

[0141] In an embodiment, when a UCVM is created, the newly created UCVM contains a guest operating system that is based on the host operating system executing on the client. As explained above in the section entitled “Efficient Physical-to-Virtual Disk Conversation,” the guest operating system within a virtual machine may be created based on the host operating system executing on client 200 using a copy-on-write (COW) process.

[0142] For example, with reference to FIG. 2, when UCVM 260 is created, UCVM 260 may contain OS 260B; OS 260B may be created based on OS 232 using a copy-on-write (COW) process. Because malicious code may be allowed to execute within UCVM 260, it is desirable to ensure that OS 260B contains no sensitive data which may be discovered or exploited by the malicious code executing within UCVM 260.

[0143] As used herein, the term “sensitive data” broadly refers to any type of data which is not intended for a wide audience and for which the potential for exploitation exists if such data were to become known by unintended parties. Illustrative, non-limiting examples of sensitive data which may be contained within an operating system include passwords, user specific data (which may include personal data such as social security numbers, names, addresses, etc.), registry keys and related information, and certificates. In addition, certain applications may store sensitive data within an operating system as well.

[0144] One prior approach for limiting or preventing access to sensitive data within an operating system is the use of an access control list (ACL) to prevent unauthorized processes from accessing sensitive data within the operating system. However, this approach is fallible and provides insufficient safeguards against malicious code, as any malicious code executing within a virtual machine may circumvent or disable any access control list mechanism employed by the guest operating system to gain access to the sensitive data stored within the operating system.

[0145] Embodiments of the invention advantageously provide mechanisms for ensuring programs cannot access any sensitive data within an operating system, such as the guest operating system employed by a virtual machine. In one embodiment, sensitive data is removed (or “scrubbed”) from a guest operating system employed by a virtual machine. In this way, even if any malicious code executing within the virtual machine gains access to the guest operating system, the malicious code will be unsuccessful in discovering any sensitive data because there simply is no sensitive data in the guest operating system for the malicious program to discover.

[0146] However, to remove sensitive data from a guest operating system, it is not enough to perform a delete operation on the sensitive data. This is so because while the performance of a delete operation will update metadata stored on the physical disk to reflect that the deleted sensitive data is no longer valid and may be overwritten, the physical disk will continue to store the actual bytes representing the sensitive data until that location on the physical disk is overwritten. Therefore, if a malicious program knew where on the physical disk to look, then the malicious program may still be able to discover sensitive data after the sensitive data has been deleted if the sensitive data had not yet been overwritten.

[0147] As a result, in certain embodiments, sensitive data is removed from a guest operating system by writing over locations on the physical disk where sensitive data is stored. For example, dummy data, such as bytes of value “00000000,” may be written on the physical disk over the locations containing the sensitive data. In this way, even if a malicious program executing in a virtual machine were to inspect data values written on the physical disk, the sensitive data would not be present for any malicious program to discover. FIG. 11A is a flowchart illustrating the high level functional steps of this technique according to an embodiment.

[0148] Note that the actual values of the dummy data used to overwrite the sensitive data on the physical disk may correspond to any values so long as the dummy data does not have any meaningful interpretation. Thus, embodiments are not limited to using any particular set of values to overwrite sensitive data on the physical disk.

[0149] However, in certain embodiments, the dummy data may be designed to include data that may be useful in investigating the circumstances of the access of the sensitive data. For example, in an embodiment, dummy data may include a record that identifies attributes of one or more of the requestor that issues a request for sensitive data, the request itself, and the portion of the guest operating system storing the sensitive data. Such a record may by dynamically constructed and may identify any number of attributes that may aid the investigation of why the sensitive data was being accessed. Alternatively or additionally, the dummy data itself may correspond to a known value (termed a “magic number”) that is determined and recorded outside of a UCVM. The magic number may be dynamically generated or may be a fixed value. UCVM disk and memory images may be searched for magic numbers as part of the forensic examination. Typically, a magic number should be eight or more bytes long to prevent coincidental matches. The magic number may be in addition to or instead of the details of the request and/or other dummy data.

[0150] Certain embodiments may use dummy data to overwrite any block of a physical disk that contains sensitive data. In other embodiments, only the portion of a block that contains sensitive data may be overwritten with dummy data, thereby leaving the remaining portion of the block undisturbed. Other embodiments of the invention may operate at the file level such that any file that contains sensitive data may be overwritten with dummy data. Thus, different embodiments may write over sensitive data with dummy data at different levels of granularity.

[0151] Embodiments may employ a variety of different techniques for identifying sensitive data within an operating system. According to one approach for identifying sensitive data, a new user is created and any portion of the operating system which the new user cannot access is deemed to contain sensitive data. This approach operates under the rationale that if a user does not have access to a portion of an operating system, then that portion must belong to a different user since the new user does not have access rights to access that portion. Since any portion of an operating system that is not generic to all users contains sensitive data for a particular user, if the new user cannot access a portion of the operating system, then it is removed for containing user specific sensitive data.

[0152] Embodiments may use other approaches for identifying sensitive data within an operating system. For example, certain embodiments may use a black list, a white list (which may be maintained by the IT administrator and/or owner of client 200), and/or knowledge of where sensitive data is stored within a retail version of the operating system. Also, while an access control list (ACL) cannot be relied upon to ensure sensitive data cannot be accessed by a malicious program, an access control list (ACL) may provide guidance on where sensitive data may be located within a guest operating system. Embodiments of the invention may use any number and combination of approaches for identifying sensitive data within an operating system. Embodiments may receive data that identifies a location where sensitive data may be found either from a user or from a programmatic entity, such as a program, that performs one or more of the techniques discussed herein for identifying sensitive data. Once sensitive data has been identified, it may be removed (or “scrubbed”) as described above. In another embodiment, once sensitive data has been identified, the sensitive data may be restricted to certain processes or users. One way to restrict sensitive data in this manner is to use file-based encryption techniques.

[0153] Embodiments may remove sensitive data from a guest operating system in other ways as well. For example, in another embodiment, sensitive data may be deleted (via a delete operation) from a copy of an operating system. Then, the operating system with the deleted sensitive data may be copied into an intermediate serialized form. Thereafter, the intermediate serialized form of the operating system may be used to recreate a deserialized copy of the operating system, which then can be saved onto the physical disk, such as storage device 910 of FIG. 9, for use by a virtual machine as a guest operating system. The act of serializing and deserializing the operating system expunges the deleted sensitive data from the operating system, since the deleted sensitive data is not carried forward and represented in the serialized intermediate form. FIG. 11B is a flowchart illustrating the high level functional steps of this technique according to an embodiment.

[0154] In other embodiments, sensitive data may be removed from a copy of an operating system using a data structure termed a sensitive data filter. A sensitive data filter is a data structure which identifies portions of a guest operating system which contain sensitive data. In an embodiment, a sensitive data filter may identify any block which stores sensitive data for a guest operating system. In other embodiments, a sensitive data filter may identify any portion of a block or any file which stores sensitive data for a guest operating system. Thus, embodiments may use a sensitive data filter to identify sensitive data at different levels of granularity.

[0155] To illustrate how a sensitive data filter may be used to restrict access to sensitive data, consider FIG. 10, which is an illustration of virtual machines 1000 and 1010 employing sensitive data filters 1004 and 1014 respectively according to an embodiment of the invention. As shown in FIG. 10, virtual machine 1000 comprises guest operating system 1006. In an embodiment, when a process executing within virtual machine 1000 attempts to access a block of guest OS 1006, the process is redirected to initially consult sensitive data filter 1004 to determine whether sensitive data filter 1004 indicates that the block being requested contains sensitive data. If the block requested by the process is a block identified by sensitive data filter 1004 as containing sensitive data, then a block containing dummy data (such as all zero values) is supplied to the process as the requested block rather than supplying the actual block. In this way, if a block is identified by sensitive data filter 1004 as containing sensitive data, then any process executing within virtual machine 100 will be prevented from accessing the “real” block and instead will only be able to access a block comprising dummy data. Similarly, a sensitive data filter designed to operate on a partial block level or file level with function as described above except partial block access and file level access will be supported. FIG. 11C is a flowchart illustrating the high level functional steps of this technique according to an embodiment.

[0156] In this approach, it may not be necessary to overwrite sensitive data stored on physical disk 610 with dummy data since any request for data will be redirected to a sensitive data filter, which will provide dummy data as the contents of any requested block, partial block, or file, without ever accessing the actual block or file stored on disk, if the requested data contains sensitive data.

[0157] If non-sensitive data is written to the area (such as a block, partial block, or file) on disk where sensitive data filter 1004 indicates that sensitive data is stored, then this fact and the contents of the non-sensitive data (such as the updated block, updated partial block, or updated file) may be identified, in an embodiment, by delta data structure 1002. A delta data structure is a data structure that identifies any changes that have been made to a block, partial block, or file that was previously identified by sensitive data filter 1004 as containing sensitive data. In an embodiment that employs delta data structure 1002, when a process executing within virtual machine 1000 requests a block, a portion of a block, or a file of guest OS 1006, the request is initially redirected to delta data structure 1002. If delta data structure 1002 contains the contents of the requested data, then the process is performed using the data identified by delta data structure 1002. If delta data structure 1002 does not contain the contents of the requested data, then the request is directed to sensitive data filter 1004, and the request processed using sensitive data filter 1004 as described above.

[0158] Note that in certain embodiments, delta data structure 1002 and sensitive data filter 1004 may be implemented by the same data structure, as shown by delta data structure and sensitive data filter 1014.

[0159] Embodiments may also remove sensitive data from a copy of an operating system in other ways as well. For example, in an embodiment, prior to creating the copy of the operating system, the contents of the registry may be configured and optimized for execution within a particular type of virtual machine. Initially, a clean registry (i.e., the state of the registry upon installation of the operating system) is obtained. Thereafter, only those keys and values which are specifically required by the type of virtual machine in which the operating system is to be used are added to the registry. Thereafter, a template may be created which enables a guest operating system with the desired registry to be instantiated. In particular, certain registry keys may benefit from such an approach, such as HKEY_USERS, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (HKLM), and HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT (HKCR).

[0160] In an embodiment, in addition to preventing sensitive data comprised within an operating system from being accessed by processes executing within a virtual machine, other unnecessary files that are not related to the virtual machine may be removed and/or prevented from being accessed as well. To illustrate, in an embodiment, a hibernate file may not be necessary for the proper operation of a UCVM, and therefore, the hibernate file may be removed from the guest operating system and/or prevented from being accessed using a sensitive data filter.

[0161] In certain embodiments of the invention, upon determining that access to sensitive data is being requested, in addition to preventing access to the sensitive data, a user may be electrically notified that an attempt was made to access sensitive data. For example, an IT administrator or each user in a set of predetermined users may receive a page, a call, an email, an instant message, and the like, to inform the user that an access was made to access sensitive data. In this way, a user may be timely notified that there may be a malicious attempt to access sensitive data within the system.

[0162] In other embodiments of the invention, upon determining that access to sensitive data is being requested, a disk fault may be simulated, and the requestor seeking access to the sensitive data may be notified that a disk fault has occurred (when in fact no such disk fault did occur). The motivation for doing so is to cause the requesting process to abort, thereby preventing not only the present access attempt from succeeding, but also hopefully preventing or minimizing the likelihood of subsequent access attempts from occurring.

[0163] Embodiments of the invention may employ any number and combination of techniques for preventing data, identified within an operating system, from being accessed by a process executing within a virtual machine. Thus, certain embodiments may use two or more of the above discussed techniques for doing so.

[0164] In an embodiment, client 200 of FIG. 2 may be implemented on, include, or correspond to a computer system. FIG. 9 is a block diagram that illustrates a computer system 900 upon which an embodiment of the invention may be implemented. In an embodiment, computer system 900 includes processor 904, main memory 906, ROM 908, storage device 910, and communication interface 918. Computer system 900 includes at least one processor 904 for processing information. Computer system 900 also includes a main memory 906, such as a random access memory (RAM) or other dynamic storage device, for storing information and instructions to be executed by processor 904. Main memory 906 also may be used for storing temporary variables or other intermediate information during execution of instructions to be executed by processor 904. Computer system 900 further includes a read only memory (ROM) 908 or other static storage device for storing static information and instructions for processor 904. A storage device 910, such as a magnetic disk or optical disk, is provided for storing information and instructions.

[0165] Computer system 900 may be coupled to a display 912, such as a cathode ray tube (CRT), a LCD monitor, and a television set, for displaying information to a user. An input device 914, including alphanumeric and other keys, is coupled to computer system 900 for communicating information and command selections to processor 904. Other non-limiting, illustrative examples of input device 914 include a mouse, a trackball, or cursor direction keys for communicating direction information and command selections to processor 904 and for controlling cursor movement on display 912. While only one input device 914 is depicted in FIG. 9, embodiments of the invention may include any number of input devices 914 coupled to computer system 900.

[0166] Embodiments of the invention are related to the use of computer system 900 for implementing the techniques described herein. According to one embodiment of the invention, those techniques are performed by computer system 900 in response to processor 904 executing one or more sequences of one or more instructions contained in main memory 906. Such instructions may be read into main memory 906 from another machine-readable medium, such as storage device 910. Execution of the sequences of instructions contained in main memory 906 causes processor 904 to perform the process steps described herein. In alternative embodiments, hard-wired circuitry may be used in place of or in combination with software instructions to implement embodiments of the invention. Thus, embodiments of the invention are not limited to any specific combination of hardware circuitry and software.

[0167] The term “machine-readable storage medium” as used herein refers to any tangible medium that participates in storing instructions which may be provided to processor 904 for execution. Such a medium may take many forms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media and volatile media. Non-volatile media includes, for example, optical or magnetic disks, such as storage device 910. Volatile media includes dynamic memory, such as main memory 906.

[0168] Non-limiting, illustrative examples of machine-readable media include, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, or any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, any other optical medium, a RAM, a PROM, and EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, or any other medium from which a computer can read.

[0169] Various forms of machine readable media may be involved in carrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions to processor 904 for execution. For example, the instructions may initially be carried on a magnetic disk of a remote computer. The remote computer can load the instructions into its dynamic memory and send the instructions over a network link 920 to computer system 900.

[0170] Communication interface 918 provides a two-way data communication coupling to a network link 920 that is connected to a local network. For example, communication interface 918 may be an integrated services digital network (ISDN) card or a modem to provide a data communication connection to a corresponding type of telephone line. As another example, communication interface 918 may be a local area network (LAN) card to provide a data communication connection to a compatible LAN. Wireless links may also be implemented. In any such implementation, communication interface 918 sends and receives electrical, electromagnetic or optical signals that carry digital data streams representing various types of information.

[0171] Network link 920 typically provides data communication through one or more networks to other data devices. For example, network link 920 may provide a connection through a local network to a host computer or to data equipment operated by an Internet Service Provider (ISP).

[0172] Computer system 900 can send messages and receive data, including program code, through the network(s), network link 920 and communication interface 918. For example, a server might transmit a requested code for an application program through the Internet, a local ISP, a local network, subsequently to communication interface 918. The received code may be executed by processor 904 as it is received, and/or stored in storage device 910, or other non-volatile storage for later execution.

[0173] In the foregoing specification, embodiments of the invention have been described with reference to numerous specific details that may vary from implementation to implementation. Thus, the sole and exclusive indicator of what is the invention, and is intended by the applicants to be the invention, is the set of claims that issue from this application, in the specific form in which such claims issue, including any subsequent correction. Any definitions expressly set forth herein for terms contained in such claims shall govern the meaning of such terms as used in the claims. Hence, no limitation, element, property, feature, advantage or attribute that is not expressly recited in a claim should limit the scope of such claim in any way. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.