Security application for a guest operating system in a virtual computing environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10089124-B2
Application number	US-201514986533-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 31, 2015
Priority date	Dec 31, 2015
Publication date	Oct 2, 2018
Grant date	Oct 2, 2018

Abstract

Hypervisors and guest operating systems/virtual machines communicate in virtual environments to enable applications and other services. Security measures are a concern in implementing a secure environment. One feature may include at least one of identifying a session initiation request from a guest operation system at a hypervisor component of a server and receiving periodic messages from the guest operating system, and establishing and maintaining a session and connection between the hypervisor and the guest operating system responsive to receiving the periodic messages from the guest operating system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
injecting, by a hypervisor component, a guest kernel module including heartbeat protocol information into the kernel of the guest operating system during a boot-up of the guest operating system, wherein the injecting comprises installing and booting the guest kernel module within the kernel while the guest operating system is booting;
identifying a session initiation request from the injected guest kernel module at the hypervisor component of a server;
initializing a communication session between the injected guest kernel module and the hypervisor component;
receiving periodic heartbeat messages from the injected guest kernel module based on the heartbeat protocol information included in the guest kernel module, wherein each heartbeat message verifies the injected guest kernel module has not been unloaded from the kernel of the guest operating system; and
maintaining the session between the hypervisor component and the injected guest kernel module responsive to receiving the periodic messages from the injected guest kernel module.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the hypervisor component of the server is a hypervisor management component (HMC).

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising at least one of:
determining that no periodic heartbeat messages have been received for a predetermined amount of time; and
notifying an administrator device of a security alert in response to the determining.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising attempting to reinstall the guest kernel module responsive to determining that no periodic heartbeat messages were received for the predetermined amount of time.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the heartbeat messages are periodically transmitted from the injected guest kernel module to the hypervisor component according to a predetermined time interval that is provided by installation of an agent application on the guest operating system.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising at least one of:
applying frequency criteria to the heartbeat messages; and
monitoring whether the heartbeat messages are received according to the frequency criteria.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the heartbeat protocol information comprises a predetermined frequency at which the injected guest kernel module is to transmit heartbeat messages to the hypervisor component.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the heartbeat protocol information comprises a customized frequency at which the injected guest kernel module is to transmit heartbeat messages to the hypervisor component, and the customized frequency is different than a frequency at which another guest kernel module of another guest operating system transmits heartbeat messages to the hypervisor component.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the injecting of the guest kernel module into the guest operating system is performed by the hypervisor component in response to detecting the guest operating system booting thereby bi-furcating a heartbeat security mechanism between the hypervisor and the kernel of the guest operating system during booting.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the injecting of the guest kernel module into the guest operating system comprises extending a base functionality of the kernel of the guest operating system to include the heartbeat protocol information by loading code associated with the heartbeat protocol information into the kernel of the guest operating system.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein, in response to not receiving any heartbeat messages for a predetermined period of time, the method further comprises determining that the injected guest kernel module has been removed from the guest operating system and terminating the guest operating system.

12. An apparatus, comprising:
a processor configured to:
inject, via a hypervisor component, a guest kernel module including heartbeat protocol information into the kernel of the guest operating system during a boot-up of the guest operating system, wherein the injecting comprises installing and booting the guest kernel module within the kernel while the guest operating system is booting;
identify a session initiation request from the injected guest kernel module at the hypervisor component of a server; and
initialize a communication session between the injected guest kernel module and the hypervisor component; and

a receiver configured to receive periodic heartbeat messages from the injected guest kernel module based on the heartbeat protocol information included in the guest kernel module, wherein each heartbeat message verifies that the injected guest kernel module has not been unloaded from the kernel of the guest operating system;
wherein the processor is further configured to maintain the session between the hypervisor component and the injected guest kernel module responsive to the periodic heartbeat messages received from the guest kernel module.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the hypervisor component of the server is a hypervisor management component (HMC).

14. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine that no periodic heartbeat messages have been received for a predetermined amount of time, and notify an administrator device of a security alert in response to the determining.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the processor is further configured to attempt to reinstall the guest kernel module responsive to determining that no periodic heartbeat messages were received for the predetermined amount of time.

16. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the heartbeat messages are periodically transmitted from the injected guest kernel module to the hypervisor component according to a predetermined time interval that is provided by installation of an agent application on the guest operating system.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the processor is further configured to apply frequency criteria to the heartbeat messages, and monitor whether the heartbeat messages are received according to the frequency criteria.

18. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium configured to store instructions that when executed cause a processor to perform:
injecting, by a hypervisor component, a guest kernel module including heartbeat protocol information into the kernel of the guest operating system during a boot-up of the guest operating system, wherein the injecting comprises installing and booting the guest kernel module within the kernel while the guest operating system is booting;
identifying a session initiation request from the injected guest kernel module at the hypervisor component of a server;
initializing a communication session between the injected guest kernel module and the hypervisor component;
receiving periodic heartbeat messages from the injected guest kernel module based on the heartbeat protocol information included in the guest kernel module, wherein each heartbeat message verifies the injected guest kernel module has not been unloaded from the kernel of the guest operating system; and
maintaining the session between the hypervisor component and the injected guest kernel module responsive to receiving the periodic messages from the injected guest kernel module.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18 , wherein the hypervisor component of the server is a hypervisor management component (HMC).

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18 , wherein the processor is further configu

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Barlev Shai
• Kohanim Shahar
• Regev Shmulik

Classifications

• G06F9/545

  where tasks reside in different layers, e.g. user- and kernel-space · CPC title

• G06F2009/45587

  Isolation or security of virtual machine instances · CPC title

• G06F9/45533

  Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors · CPC title

• G06F11/301

  where the computing system is a virtual computing platform, e.g. logically partitioned systems (virtual machines G06F9/45533; logical partitioning of resources G06F9/5077) · CPC title

• G06F11/3055

  Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available (error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operations G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16) · CPC title