BitVisor

Kernel updates are a part of daily life in contemporary computer systems. They usually require an OS reboot that involves restarting not only the kernel but also all of the running applications, causing downtime that can disrupt software services. This downtime issue has been tackled by numerous approaches. Although dynamic translation of the running kernel image, which is a representative approach, can conduct kernel updates at runtime, its applicability is inherently limited. This paper describes Dwarf, which shortens downtime during kernel updates and covers more types of updates. Dwarf launches the newer kernel in the background on the same physical machine and forces the kernel to inherit the running states of the older kernel. We implemented a prototype of Dwarf on Xen 4.5.2, Linux 2.6.39, Linux 3.18.35, and Linux 4.1.6. Also, we conducted experiments using six applications, such as Apache, MySQL, and memcached, and the results demonstrate that Dwarf's downtime is 1.8 seconds in the shortest case and up to 10× shorter than that of the normal OS reboot.

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“…3. For example, we can implement Dwarf on BitVisor [25], which is a thin hypervisor for enforcing I/O device security.…”

Section: Discussion: Memory Space Overheadmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shortening Downtime of Reboot-Based Kernel Updates Using Dwarf

Terada

Yamada

2018

IEICE Trans. Inf. & Syst.

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“…While, in general, hypervisors enable the execution of multiple operating systems on a single machine, we propose to use a hypervisor environment for securing a single operating system. The idea to use such a limited hypervisor for providing additional security is not new [9,10]. Unlike full hypervisors, which tend to degrade the overall system performance significantly, thin hypervisors may intercept only a small portion of the system's events, thus keeping the system performance at an optimum (see Section 5.2).…”

Section: Virtualizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…BitVisor [9] is a thin hypervisor that intercepts access to ATA hard disks to enforce storage encryption. A thin hypervisor is a preferred solution for security applications due to its low overhead compared to a full hypervisor.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

H-KPP: Hypervisor-Assisted Kernel Patch Protection

Kiperberg

Zaidenberg

2022

Applied Sciences

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We present H-KPP, hypervisor-based protection for kernel code and data structures. H-KPP prevents the execution of unauthorized code in kernel mode. In addition, H-KPP protects certain object fields from malicious modifications. H-KPP can protect modern kernels equipped with BPF facilities and loadable kernel modules. H-KPP does not require modifying or recompiling the kernel. Unlike many other systems, H-KPP is based on a thin hypervisor and includes a novel SLAT switching mechanism, which allows H-KPP to achieve very low (≈6%) performance overhead compared to baseline Linux.

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“…BitVisor [32] can encrypt the disk of a VM using a parapass-through driver in the trusted hypervisor. The hypervisor intercepts only minimum hardware access needed for disk encryption, while the other access passes through the hypervisor.…”

Section: Secure Disk Encryptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Secure VM management with strong user binding in semi-trusted clouds

Inokuchi

Kourai

2020

J Cloud Comp

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In Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) clouds, remote users access provided virtual machines (VMs) via the management server. The management server is managed by cloud operators, but not all the cloud operators are trusted in semi-trusted clouds. They can execute arbitrary management commands to users' VMs and redirect users' commands to malicious VMs. We call the latter attack the VM redirection attack. The root cause is that the binding of remote users to their VMs is weak. In other words, it is difficult to enforce the execution of only users' management commands to their VMs. In this paper, we propose UVBond for strongly binding users to their VMs to address this issue. UVBond boots user's VM by decrypting its encrypted disk inside the trusted hypervisor. Then it issues a VM descriptor to securely identify that VM. To bridge the semantic gap between high-level management commands and low-level hypercalls, UVBond uses hypercall automata, which accept the sequences of hypercalls issued by commands. We have implemented UVBond in Xen and created hypercall automata for various management commands. Using UVBond, we confirmed that a VM descriptor and hypercall automata prevented insider attacks and that the overhead was not large in remote VM management.

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BitVisor

Cited by 130 publications

References 23 publications

Shortening Downtime of Reboot-Based Kernel Updates Using Dwarf

Shortening Downtime of Reboot-Based Kernel Updates Using Dwarf

H-KPP: Hypervisor-Assisted Kernel Patch Protection

Secure VM management with strong user binding in semi-trusted clouds

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