Abstract:
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for selecting native code instructions. One of the methods includes receiving an initial machine language instruction for execution by a processor in a first execution mode; determining that a portion of the initial machine language instruction, when executed by the processor in a second execution mode, satisfies one or more risk criteria; generating one or more alternative machine language instructions to replace the initial machine language instruction for execution by the processor in the first execution mode, wherein the one or more alternative machine language instructions, when executed by the processor in the second execution mode, mitigate the one or more risk criteria; and providing the one or more alternative machine language instructions.
Abstract:
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for software sandboxing. One of the methods includes receiving a software module that includes verifiably safe computer code and a branch destination table indicating addresses of all instructions that may be targets of indirect control flow transfers; validating the computer code to determine whether it can run safely by using a statically verifiable fault isolation scheme, where validating the computer code comprises validating the addresses of the branch destination table instructions; and running the computer code, in a sandbox environment, if it has been determined to run safely.
Abstract:
Methods and apparatus for dynamically adding and deleting new code to previously validated application executing in a secured runtime. New code is written to a portion of secured memory not executable by application. New code is validated to ensure it cannot directly call operating system, address memory outside of secured memory, or modify secured memory state. Indirect branch instructions may only target addresses aligned on fixed size boundaries within the secured memory. Validated code is copied to portion of secured memory executable by application in two stage process that ensures partially copied segments cannot be executed. Validated new code can be deleted once all threads reach safe execution point, provided code was previously inserted as unit or contains no internal targets that can be called by code not also being deleted.
Abstract:
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, relating to software execution. One of the methods includes executing, on a computer including a single memory for storing data and instructions, a virtual environment including a data memory and an instruction memory, the instruction memory configured to be unreadable by instructions stored in the instruction memory; receiving, at the virtual environment, a software module comprising multiple instructions; and performing validation of the software module including: identifying, in the software module one or more calls to the single memory; and verifying that the one or more calls to the single memory are in the data memory.
Abstract:
A system that validates a native code module. During operation, the system receives a native code module comprised of untrusted native program code. The system validates the native code module by: (1) determining that code in the native code module does not include any restricted instructions and/or does not access restricted features of a computing device; and (2) determining that the instructions in the native code module are aligned along byte boundaries such that a specified set of byte boundaries always contain a valid instruction and control flow instructions have valid targets. The system allows successfully-validated native code modules to execute, and rejects native code modules that fail validation. By validating the native code module, the system facilitates safely executing the native code module in the secure runtime environment on the computing device, thereby achieving native code performance for untrusted program binaries without significant risk of unwanted side effects.
Abstract:
Methods, systems, and computer program products are provided for machine-specific instruction set translation. One example method includes identifying computing devices, each device having a respective software component installed, the software component including a translator component for translating a program in a portable format to a machine-specific instruction set, and a sandbox component for executing programs translated to the machine-specific instruction set on the computing device using software-based fault isolation; identifying computing devices having a given hardware configuration; and transmitting another translator component and another sandbox component to each of the identified computing devices. Each of the identified computing devices having the given hardware configuration is configured to receive the components and to configure its software component to use the received components in lieu of the corresponding components.
Abstract:
A system that safely executes a native code module on a computing device. During operation, the system receives the native code module, which is comprised of untrusted native program code expressed using native instructions in the instruction set architecture associated with the computing device. The system then loads the native code module into a secure runtime environment, and proceeds to execute a set of instructions from the native code module in the secure runtime environment. The secure runtime environment enforces code integrity, control flow integrity, and data integrity for the native code module. Furthermore, the secure runtime environment moderates which resources can be accessed by the native code module on the computing device and/or how these resources can be accessed. By executing the native code module in the secure runtime environment, the system facilitates achieving native code performance for untrusted program code without a significant risk of unwanted side effects.
Abstract:
Methods, systems, and computer program products are provided for machine-specific instruction set translation. One example method includes identifying computing devices, each device having a respective software component installed, the software component including a translator component for translating a program in a portable format to a machine-specific instruction set, and a sandbox component for executing programs translated to the machine-specific instruction set on the computing device using software-based fault isolation; identifying computing devices having a given hardware configuration; and transmitting another translator component and another sandbox component to each of the identified computing devices. Each of the identified computing devices having the given hardware configuration is configured to receive the components and to configure its software component to use the received components in lieu of the corresponding components.
Abstract:
A system that safely executes a native code module on a computing device. During operation, the system receives the native code module, which is comprised of untrusted native program code expressed using native instructions in the instruction set architecture associated with the computing device. The system then loads the native code module into a secure runtime environment, and proceeds to execute a set of instructions from the native code module in the secure runtime environment. The secure runtime environment enforces code integrity, control flow integrity, and data integrity for the native code module. Furthermore, the secure runtime environment moderates which resources can be accessed by the native code module on the computing device and/or how these resources can be accessed. By executing the native code module in the secure runtime environment, the system facilitates achieving native code performance for untrusted program code without a significant risk of unwanted side effects.
Abstract:
Some embodiments provide a system that executes a native code module. During operation, the system obtains the native code module. Next, the system loads the native code module into a secure runtime environment. Finally, the system safely executes the native code module in the secure runtime environment by using a set of software fault isolation (SFI) mechanisms that maintain control flow integrity for the native code module and constrain store instructions in the native code module by bounding a valid memory region of the native code module with one or more guard regions.