Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F21/00—Security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity
  • G06F21/50—Monitoring users, programs or devices to maintain the integrity of platforms, e.g. of processors, firmware or operating systems
  • G06F21/52—Monitoring users, programs or devices to maintain the integrity of platforms, e.g. of processors, firmware or operating systems during program execution, e.g. stack integrity ; Preventing unwanted data erasure; Buffer overflow
  • G06F21/53—Monitoring users, programs or devices to maintain the integrity of platforms, e.g. of processors, firmware or operating systems during program execution, e.g. stack integrity ; Preventing unwanted data erasure; Buffer overflow by executing in a restricted environment, e.g. sandbox or secure virtual machine
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F15/00—Digital computers in general; Data processing equipment in general
  • G06F15/16—Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F40/00—Handling natural language data
  • G06F40/10—Text processing
  • G06F40/12—Use of codes for handling textual entities
  • G06F40/14—Tree-structured documents
  • G06F40/143—Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F9/00—Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units
  • G06F9/06—Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units using stored programs, i.e. using an internal store of processing equipment to receive or retain programs
  • G06F9/44—Arrangements for executing specific programs
  • G06F9/445—Program loading or initiating
  • G06F9/44521—Dynamic linking or loading; Link editing at or after load time, e.g. Java class loading
  • G06F9/44526—Plug-ins; Add-ons
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F9/00—Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units
  • G06F9/06—Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units using stored programs, i.e. using an internal store of processing equipment to receive or retain programs
  • G06F9/44—Arrangements for executing specific programs
  • G06F9/451—Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F2221/00—Indexing scheme relating to security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity
  • G06F2221/03—Indexing scheme relating to G06F21/50, monitoring users, programs or devices to maintain the integrity of platforms
  • G06F2221/033—Test or assess software
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F2221/00—Indexing scheme relating to security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity
  • G06F2221/21—Indexing scheme relating to G06F21/00 and subgroups addressing additional information or applications relating to security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity
  • G06F2221/2149—Restricted operating environment

Definitions

• Contemporary browsers allow plug-ins, which in general comprise hosted software code that interacts with the hosting browser / application to provide some desired functionality.
• One such plug-in is Microsoft ® SilverlightTM, which provides a platform that allows for development and hosting of rich web applications that often include animation, vector graphics and/or media (e.g., audio/video) content playback.
• a plug-in can host a third party application.
• this is related to a significant function of modern application development, namely componentization.
• componentization A general idea behind componentization is to break up a large application in to smaller components that perform smaller portions of the larger task, are reusable and have a known interface. With componentization comes the ability for external (e.g., second or third) parties to author components for an existing application; for example, one modern web-based incarnation of this concept is a web mashup.
• host application is a browser plug-in (e.g., Microsoft ® SilverlightTM) application that instantiates another plug-in that is hidden to the browser, and prevents the hosted application from accessing data by instantiating the other plug-in with disabled access to browser/hosted application data (e.g., elements) or other applications data.
• browser plug-in e.g., Microsoft ® SilverlightTM
• instantiates another plug-in that is hidden to the browser and prevents the hosted application from accessing data by instantiating the other plug-in with disabled access to browser/hosted application data (e.g., elements) or other applications data.
• a tag element identifies the hosted application within code (e.g., XAML) associated with the host application.
• code e.g., XAML
• a host element is added to the host application's element tree to represent the hosted application.
• the tag element may specify a rendering area for the hosted application.
• Content from the hosted application is rendered in conjunction (e.g., composited) with content from the host application.
• the hosted application may be an advertisement.
• the host application may provide keywords to the hosted application, such as corresponding to page content, whereby the hosted application may select a relevant advertisement.
• the hosted application may be allowed to perform some privileged operations, such as to allow the hosted application to open a browser window to display website content (e.g., bring up a website when the user clicks an advertisement in the hosted application's rendering area).
• FIGURE 1 is a block diagram showing example components for isolating an application hosted by a host (browser plug-in) application.
• FIG. 2 is a flow diagram showing example steps taken to isolate a hosted application.
• FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing example components for additional communication between a host application and an isolated plug-in application. MS 325210.02
• FIG. 4 shows an illustrative example of a computing environment into which various aspects of the present invention may be incorporated.
• a first application e.g., browser plug-in or the like
• a second application typically untrusted, third party
• this is accomplished by instancing a separate in-memory plug- in instance, which is unknown to the web browser, to isolate the second application.
• the second application e.g., advertisement
• the hosted application does not have access to information related to the hosting application or the web browser, unless the hosting application desires to provide some information.
• FIG. 1 shows various aspects related to application isolation as described herein.
• a browser 102 is loaded with a host application 104, such as a Microsoft ® SilverlightTM plug-in.
• the host application 104 corresponds to user interface application code 106, such as written in XAML (extensible application markup language), which is parsed by a parser 108 into various elements corresponding to a tree 110. As is known, these elements are processed for rendering into the visible output on the browser page.
• an application 111 such as a third party advertisement is hosted by the host application 104 as part of a hidden (separate, MS 325210.02
• the hidden plug-in 1 12 may be another SilverlightTM plug-in, that is, another instance that is privately created (unknown to the browser) by a host SilverlightTM plug-in.
• plug-ins may be used, as long as they can be instantiated or otherwise configured in a manner that prevents them from any direct communication with the HTML browser, e.g., the plug-in is instantiated such that it has no access to the browser Document Object Model (DOM).
• DOM Document Object Model
• a tag element e.g., in the XAML application code 106 that identifies a source of the hosted application and represents an isolation boundary in which to instance the hidden plug-in 112 for loading the hosted (isolated) application 111 : ⁇ Canvas> ⁇ ! — part of the host application -->
• the tag element is represented in FIG. 1 by the XapHost element 114.
• the XapHost element 114 is responsible for instancing and initializing the hidden plug-in 112 in memory, in a location that is not discoverable from the browser 102; this may be accomplished via private APIs or the like.
• the hosted application 111 does not participate in the tree 110 of the host application 104, except via the XapHost element 114 that acts as a proxy to isolate the hidden plug-in 112.
• the hosted application 111 cannot traverse the tree other than to its own topmost node, which corresponds to the root node of its application. Note that it does not have access to the XapHost element, which resides in the hosting applications tree. Instead, the hosted application 111 is limited to only MS 325210.02
• the XapHost element 114 initializes the hidden plug-in 112 and loads the corresponding hosted application 111 (e.g., XAP) that is specified by the "Source” attribute, (which in the above example XAML language is identified as "http://www.advertisements.com/ad.xap").
• the hosted application 111 has no access to the browser's HTML domain object model (e.g., the EnableHtmlAccess property is set to false) and is loaded in its own application domain, e.g., (Common Language Runtime, or CLR AppDomain), with its own access to global static variables and so forth; note that SilverlightTM contains its own mini-CLR 118. Without domain object model (DomBridge) access, the hosted application 111 does not have access to any other content on the page, including the page itself, or other plug-ins. [0021] As also represented in FIG.
• the XapHost element 114 directs input and layout notifications from the hosting application 104 to the hosted application 111. Further, the XapHost element 114 processes the output of the hosted application 111 so that that output can be composited by the hosting application's plug-in; (note that any other output such as audio and/or tactile output may be similarly mixed). Step 212 represents tearing down the hosted application at an appropriate time, e.g., upon shutdown or when the corresponding reference count on the XapHost element 114 goes to zero (e.g., when that part of the user interface is no longer to be rendered). [0022] In one aspect, generally represented in FIG. 3, the XapHost element 114 may include one or more interfaces (e.g., APIs 330, among the other private APIs MS 325210.02
• initialization parameters may include a collection of keywords that are present on the hosting page, for which an advertisement application can serve relevant advertisements corresponding to one or more of the keywords.
• the XapHost element 114 may allow the hosted application to perform certain privileged operations, (or perform the operations on its behalf upon an appropriate call 334).
• certain privileged operations or perform the operations on its behalf upon an appropriate call 334.
• One example is to open a new browser window in response to a user- initiated action, such as to bring up a website corresponding to a clicked-on advertisement.
• Another advantage is the ability to control power consumption. For example, advertisements may be a large source of power consumption in modern computer usage.
• plug-in hosting e.g., XapHost
• a reduced power mode may conserve power, such as by disabling animations and other power consuming operations.
• FIGURE 4 illustrates an example of a suitable computing and networking environment 400 on which the examples of FIGS. 1-3 may be implemented.
• the computing system environment 400 is only one example of a suitable computing environment and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of the invention. Neither should the computing environment 400 be interpreted as having any dependency or requirement relating to any one or combination of components illustrated in the exemplary operating environment 400.
• the invention is operational with numerous other general purpose or special purpose computing system environments or configurations.
• Examples of well known computing systems, environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with the invention include, but are not limited to: personal computers, server computers, hand-held or laptop devices, tablet devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, MS 325210.02
• the invention may be described in the general context of computer- executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a computer.
• program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, and so forth, which perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types.
• the invention may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network.
• program modules may be located in local and/or remote computer storage media including memory storage devices.
• an exemplary system for implementing various aspects of the invention may include a general purpose computing device in the form of a computer 410.
• Components of the computer 410 may include, but are not limited to, a processing unit 420, a system memory 430, and a system bus 421 that couples various system components including the system memory to the processing unit 420.
• the system bus 421 may be any of several types of bus structures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures.
• ISA Industry Standard Architecture
• MCA Micro Channel Architecture
• EISA Enhanced ISA
• VESA Video Electronics Standards Association
• PCI Peripheral Component Interconnect
• the computer 410 typically includes a variety of computer-readable media.
• Computer-readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by the computer 410 and includes both volatile and nonvolatile media, and removable and non-removable media.
• Computer-readable media may comprise computer storage media and communication media.
• Computer storage media includes volatile and nonvolatile, removable and nonremovable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of MS 325210.02
• Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can accessed by the computer 410.
• Communication media typically embodies computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includes any information delivery media.
• modulated data signal means a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal.
• communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct- wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media. Combinations of the any of the above may also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.
• the system memory 430 includes computer storage media in the form of volatile and/or nonvolatile memory such as read only memory (ROM) 431 and random access memory (RAM) 432.
• ROM read only memory
• RAM random access memory
• BIOS basic input/output system 433
• RAM 432 typically contains data and/or program modules that are immediately accessible to and/or presently being operated on by processing unit 420.
• FIG. 4 illustrates operating system 434, application programs 435, other program modules 436 and program data 437.
• the computer 410 may also include other removable/non-removable, volatile/nonvolatile computer storage media.
• FIG. 4 illustrates a hard disk drive 441 that reads from or writes to non-removable, nonvolatile magnetic media, a magnetic disk drive 451 that reads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile magnetic disk 452, and an optical disk drive 455 that reads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile optical disk 456 such as a CD MS 325210.02
• ROM or other optical media.
• Other removable/non-removable, volatile/nonvolatile computer storage media that can be used in the exemplary operating environment include, but are not limited to, magnetic tape cassettes, flash memory cards, digital versatile disks, digital video tape, solid state RAM, solid state ROM, and the like.
• the hard disk drive 441 is typically connected to the system bus 421 through a nonremovable memory interface such as interface 440, and magnetic disk drive 451 and optical disk drive 455 are typically connected to the system bus 421 by a removable memory interface, such as interface 450.
• the drives and their associated computer storage media, described above and illustrated in FIG. 4, provide storage of computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules and other data for the computer 410. In FIG.
• hard disk drive 441 is illustrated as storing operating system 444, application programs 445, other program modules 446 and program data 447. Note that these components can either be the same as or different from operating system 434, application programs 435, other program modules 436, and program data 437. Operating system 444, application programs 445, other program modules 446, and program data 447 are given different numbers herein to illustrate that, at a minimum, they are different copies.
• a user may enter commands and information into the computer 410 through input devices such as a tablet, or electronic digitizer, 464, a microphone 463, a keyboard 462 and pointing device 461, commonly referred to as mouse, trackball or touch pad. Other input devices not shown in FIG.
• a monitor 491 or other type of display device is also connected to the system bus 421 via an interface, such as a video interface 490.
• the monitor 491 may also be integrated with a touch-screen panel or the like. Note that the monitor and/or touch screen panel can be physically coupled to a housing in which the computing device 410 is incorporated, such as in a tablet-type personal computer.
• computers such as the computing device 410 may also include other MS 325210.02
• the computer 410 may operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer 480.
• the remote computer 480 may be a personal computer, a server, a router, a network PC, a peer device or other common network node, and typically includes many or all of the elements described above relative to the computer 410, although only a memory storage device 481 has been illustrated in FIG. 4.
• the logical connections depicted in FIG. 4 include one or more local area networks (LAN) 471 and one or more wide area networks (WAN) 473, but may also include other networks.
• LAN local area network
• WAN wide area network
• the computer 410 When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 410 is connected to the LAN 471 through a network interface or adapter 470.
• the computer 410 When used in a WAN networking environment, the computer 410 typically includes a modem 472 or other means for establishing communications over the WAN 473, such as the Internet.
• the modem 472 which may be internal or external, may be connected to the system bus 421 via the user input interface 460 or other appropriate mechanism.
• a wireless networking component 474 such as comprising an interface and antenna may be coupled through a suitable device such as an access point or peer computer to a WAN or LAN.
• program modules depicted relative to the computer 410, or portions thereof, may be stored in the remote memory storage device.
• FIG. 4 illustrates remote application programs 485 as residing on memory device 481. It may be appreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary and other means of establishing a communications link between the computers may be used.
• An auxiliary subsystem 499 (e.g., for auxiliary display of content) may be connected via the user interface 460 to allow data such as program content, system status and event notifications to be provided to the user, even if the main portions of the computer system are in a low power state.
• the auxiliary subsystem 499 may be connected to the modem 472 and/or network interface 470 to allow MS 325210.02

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• 2008
  • 2008-12-09 US US12/330,528 patent/US9594900B2/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
• 2009
  • 2009-11-11 KR KR1020117013230A patent/KR101719378B1/ko not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2009-11-11 EP EP09836588.5A patent/EP2356582B1/en not_active Not-in-force
  • 2009-11-11 ES ES09836588T patent/ES2738574T3/es active Active
  • 2009-11-11 JP JP2011540748A patent/JP6026108B2/ja not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2009-11-11 WO PCT/US2009/064034 patent/WO2010077443A2/en not_active Ceased
  • 2009-11-11 CN CN2009801501419A patent/CN102246157B/zh not_active Expired - Fee Related
• 2017
  • 2017-02-15 US US15/433,261 patent/US10242181B2/en active Active

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