Methods and systems for determining potentially unsafe instructions in a virtual machine context and activating a software debugger to process the potentially unsafe instructions
US8176488B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Dec 25, 2009 |
| Grant date | May 8, 2012 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 8, 2030 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F2009/45587
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Methods and systems for safe execution of guest code in virtual machine context are presented. A method for running a virtual machine in a computing system includes (a) launching a virtual machine monitor (VMM) that uses a software debugger; (b) launching a virtual machine (VM) that can natively run safe instructions; (c) determining, at runtime, if the instruction is safe or potentially unsafe; (d) executing safe instructions in a native mode; and (e) activating control logic to process potentially unsafe instructions in the software debugger. The software debugger can bypass at least one of the potentially unsafe instructions. The potentially unsafe instructions include instructions that cannot be safely executed in the context of the VM, and instructions that can cause unpredictable results in the context of the VM.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.