Patent Application
20160004858
This specification relates to translating web application code into security-enhanced native executable code.
One important principle of the web is portability. For example, a typical web page renders and behaves the same way on a browser, regardless of the browser's operating system or the type of hardware it's running on. A conventional technique for ensuring portability is to distribute an intermediate representation of the software module source code that is encoded in a portable code format (i.e., a format that is not specific to any particular instruction set architecture). A client application platform (e.g., a browser) then locally either interprets the portable code or translates the portable code into native machine code instructions for the client's particular instruction set architecture (ISA) prior to executing the native code.
There are many security vulnerabilities present for clients that receive and process portable code. One source of vulnerability is the design of the portable code itself. For example, the portable code may represent unsafe source language constructs that, after translation into native code instructions, will harm the client system when the instructions are executed. Another source of vulnerability is in the translation process. Interpreters and components performing translation (e.g., translators, JIT compilers, and bytecode verifiers) are large, complex software modules that are likely to have bugs, design flaws, and other features that can be exploited by malicious code.
This specification describes technologies relating to preserving code safety of application code that is received in a portable, instruction-set-neutral format. The portable code is translated into native machine code instructions, which then are validated prior to their local execution.
In general, one aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods that include the actions of receiving a portable code file that is implemented in an instruction-set-neutral and source code independent format; translating the portable code file into native object code for execution on a particular instruction set architecture; generating a native executable for the particular instruction set architecture using the native object code; and validation the native executable using a trusted validator prior to execution of the native executable. Other embodiments of this aspect include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer program products.
These and other embodiments can optionally include one or more of the following features. Validating the native executable includes determining if the native executable satisfies one or more code safety constraints. Generating the native executable includes linking the native object code with one or more native system code libraries. The actions further include executing the native executable. Executing the native executable is within a sandbox execution environment. Translating the portable code file includes one or more optimizations. One or more optimizations are selected based on one or more profiles of earlier program executions. The instruction-set-neutral and source code independent format is Low Level Virtual Machine (LLVM) bitcode.
The systems and techniques described here may provide one or more of the following advantages.
A workflow in which compilation of source code into an instruction-set-neutral intermediate representation is performed independently provides flexibility in design, development, and distribution of application programs. Source code that is developed once can be widely distributed, and translated into machine code that can execute efficiently on any of a variety of instruction set architectures (ISAs) without requiring re-compilation of the source code.
An intermediate representation of machine code instructions in an instruction-set-neutral (portable) format can be generated from input source code of any of a variety of widely-used programming languages. The instruction-set-neutral format provides a level of confidence that an application program received in that format was not designed or developed by an untrusted application provider for execution only on specific ISAs that may be favored by the application provider.
Code safety is facilitated by performing validation of the native code after it has been translated. Validation is performed locally at a client by a trusted validator that is a component of a sandbox (e.g., a component of the client runtime for ensuring code safety). Validation has minimal impact on overall system performance. A trusted validator is a small code module designed specifically for the security task at hand. Thus, a validator will tend to have fewer security vulnerabilities than an interpreter or translation components (e.g., translator, JIT compiler, and bytecode verifier), which are larger, more complex pieces of software for which security is commonly a secondary requirement compared to other features.
Ensuring safety of the native code does not depend on the components that perform the translation also being trusted components (e.g., the components being free of bugs and other exploitable features). Thus, those components can be omitted from a system's trusted code base. This permits a system using a trusted validator to maintain a smaller trusted code base than is found in commonly available systems, enhancing the general security properties of the system.
Since validation can be performed independently from translation, a client can be configured to validate a native executable that has been provided from a non-local translation process. Non-local translation of a portable executable into a native executable for a client's ISA relieves the client from performing the resource-intensive task of translation.
The details of one or more implementations are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features and advantages will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.
Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like elements.
A portable software module represented in an instruction-set-neutral code format is translated by a target system, either by compilation or interpretation, into an executable format for a particular instruction set architecture (ISA) before it can be executed. There are several major types of security vulnerabilities for a target system that receives and then executes portable software. Received portable code is not assumed to be trusted code. For example, the code may contain viruses, exploitable defects (e.g., bugs, design flaws) or other features that can make a system more vulnerable to attack when the code is executed.
The translation process can expose a variety of security vulnerabilities for the target system. In some implementations, systems perform the translation process using one or more software components (e.g., translators, just-in-time (JIT) compilers, bytecode verifiers) that are large, complex software modules that can have a high likelihood of containing exploitable features (e.g., bugs, design flaws). In addition to being translated by components likely to have exploitable features, portable code can be linked to untrusted intrinsic code libraries as it is converted.
However, using the systems and techniques described in this specification, a developer can design and write a verifiably safe software module, represent and distribute that module in a portable code format, and have the module received and translated into a native executable that is verified to execute safely on any of a wide variety of ISAs.
The three phases are not inter-dependent, and can be implemented on different computing devices at different times. In some implementations, the translation phase 100B is implemented locally for the ISA of a computing device on which the native executable 155 will execute. In some alternative implementations, the translation phase 100B is implemented remotely on a different computing device, and a native executable 155 for a particular ISA is provided to a computing device having that particular ISA. The validation phase 100C can be implemented locally by a computing device prior to executing a native executable 155 to ensure safe execution of the machine code.
In the compilation phase 100A, a compiler 120 performs syntactic and semantic analysis of input source code files 105a, 105b, and 105c (collectively input source files 105) and generates an intermediate form of execution instructions code 125 in an ISA-neutral (portable) format. In some implementations, the generated portable code is Low-Level Virtual Machine (LLVM) bitcode that is source language independent and conforms to the open-source LLVM specification. In some implementations, the compiler 120 has one of the widely-used Gnu Compiler Collection (GCC) compiler front ends from the Gnu Project and a backend that outputs LLVM bitcode. There are GCC compiler front ends implemented for a variety of different source code languages. Therefore, an intermediate representation in a standardized portable format 125 can be generated from compiling input source code that is written in any of a large number of commonly used programming languages (e.g., C, C++, or FORTRAN). The generated intermediate representation can include multiple files (e.g., bitcode 125a, 125b, and 125c).
A linker (e.g., bitcode linker 130) generates a single portable executable file 135 by linking one or more generated portable code files 125 with one or more libraries of system-level instructions that define aspects of code execution environments.
The portable executable file establishes an environment that defines many of the characteristics of a platform architecture on which the program can run. Some examples of these characteristics include: the width in bits of a pointer; the encoding of multibyte integers (byte order); the inventory and behavior of system calls provided by the operating system; the memory model governing the apparent order of loads and stores from memory; and the memory layout of record types.
In the translation phase 100B, a translator 140 converts a portable executable file into native code instructions 145 for a particular ISA. A linker 150 generates a native executable 155 by linking the native code instructions 145 with one or more local native system libraries.
In the validation phase 100C, a trusted validator 160 validates a native executable 155 to ensure its code safety prior to its execution. If the validator 160 determines that the native executable satisfies a set of code safety constraints, the native executable is trusted 165 and can be executed.
The system receives 205 a portable executable file (e.g. the portable executable file 135). In some implementations, the received portable executable file is generated by a system implementing workflow compilation phase 100A. In some implementations, the received portable executable file is generated by the same system that generates the native executable. In some alternative implementations, the portable executable file is generated by a second remote system. In some other implementations, the portable executable file was generated at an earlier time and is retrieved from storage.
The system uses a translator (e.g., translator 140) to generate 210 native object code instructions (e.g., native object code 145) by converting the portable code into native machine code instructions that are executable by a particular ISA. In some implementations, the native machine code may be an Executable and Linkable Format (ELF) executable or an ELF shared object. In some implementations, the translator includes an optimizer that improves the execution performance of the generated native object code on its particular ISA. A linker (e.g., linker 150) links the native machine code with one or more native system libraries and generates a native executable (e.g., native executable 155) that can be run directly on a computing platform having the ISA.
In some implementations, the translator includes an optimizer that improves the execution performance of the generated native object code on a particular ISA. The system generates 215 the native executable by linking the native object code with intrinsic system native code libraries using a linker.
The system validates 220 a generated native executable using a trusted validator (e.g., validator 160) in order to provide a guarantee of the machine code safety prior to its being executed. In some implementations, validation is performed by a trusted validator component of a sandbox within the system's local execution environment.
Sandboxing, or safe confinement of software behavior, is a technique for providing safety guarantees when executing untrusted software. Code can be analyzed using a validator to ensure that the code satisfies a set of code safety constraints defined by the sandbox execution environment. Code validation itself is an efficient process, providing minimal performance overhead. Sandboxing can be language-independent, so that the verifiably safe native code safety constraints do not restrict the choice of an implementation language. One example of a sandboxing system is Native Client (NaCl). Native Client is a Software Fault Isolation (SFI)-based system for providing a trusted sandbox and machine code safety guarantees based on static analysis of verifiably safe machine code, which is described, for example, in D. Sehr, R. Muth, C. Biffle, V. Khimenko, E. Pasko, K. Schimpf, B. Yee, and B. Chen, “Adapting Software Fault Isolation to Contemporary CPU Architectures,” 19th USENIX Security Symposium 2010.
In some implementations, for example, the system is a Portable Native Client (PNaCl) system that uses a Native Client validator.
The execution environment on the client 320 is further configured to include a sandbox 324 (e.g., a Native Client sandbox), and to perform the local translation of the portable code file 335 within the sandbox 324. The components performing the translation (e.g., a translator 340 and a linker 350) are not assumed to be trusted components (e.g., assumed to be free of bugs and design flaws), and thus the native executable 355 generated from the translation process also is not assumed to be trusted. Prior to execution of the executable within the sandbox 324, a trusted validator 360 component of the sandbox 324 is used to analyze the generated machine code to ensure that the code satisfies the safety constraints of the sandbox. Only a validated, and therefore trusted, native code executable 365 is executed by the client.
In some implementations, the client validates an executable locally to ensure its code safety, but the resource-intensive task of translation from portable code into machine code for the client's ISA (e.g., phase 100B,
In some implementations, a client is configured to use a particular translation service. In some alternative implementations, a client selects a non-local translation service from a whitelist of available translation services. In some implementations, the choice of translation service is explicitly determined at the time the translation request is generated. In some alternative implementations, the choice of which translation service to use is based on a user-settable configuration state. In yet other implementations, a client submits translation requests to a specified default translation service. Some example criteria for selecting a particular translation service include selecting a translation service that provides a native executable that is highly optimized for a particular ISA; selecting a designated alternate translation service for a default translation service that is temporarily unavailable; selecting a translation service required by a corporate security policy; and performing evaluation testing of a new translation service.
As illustrated in
In some alternative implementations, a server 430 can request an optimized, higher-quality native executable from the translation service 440 in response to client request (405) for an optimized native executable. In some other implementations, a server 430 can initiate a request to the translation service 440 for an optimized, higher-quality native executable. The server can store the higher-quality native executable, and handle subsequent client requests (405) for the native executable by returning (465) the stored native executable. This ensures that the server's handling of a client request (405) can occur within a minimal response time and avoid the additional performance overhead to produce an optimized native executable.
The system receives 505 a request for a particular native executable. If the system is implemented as a locally hosted translation service, the request can be received from a software module that is executing on the same device. If the system is implemented as a non-local translation service, the request can be received over a network from a client (e.g., client 420 of
If the system determines 510 that the requested native executable is not stored, the system obtains 515 a portable code file, and translates 520 the portable code file into native object code. As described with respect to
The system generates 525 a native executable by linking the native object code with one or more native system code libraries. The system returns 530 the generated native executable to the requestor. The generated native executable is not assumed to be trusted. In some implementations, the requestor is a client (e.g., client 420 of
Embodiments of the subject matter and the operations described in this specification can be implemented in digital electronic circuitry, or in computer software, firmware, or hardware, including the structures disclosed in this specification and their structural equivalents, or in combinations of one or more of them. Embodiments of the subject matter described in this specification can be implemented as one or more computer programs, i.e., one or more modules of computer program instructions, encoded on computer storage medium for execution by, or to control the operation of, data processing apparatus. Alternatively or in addition, the program instructions can be encoded on an artificially-generated propagated signal, (e.g., a machine-generated electrical, optical, or electromagnetic signal) that is generated to encode information for transmission to suitable receiver apparatus for execution by a data processing apparatus. A computer storage medium can be, or be included in, a computer-readable storage device, a computer-readable storage substrate, a random or serial access memory array or device, or a combination of one or more of them. Moreover, while a computer storage medium is not a propagated signal, a computer storage medium can be a source or destination of computer program instructions encoded in an artificially-generated propagated signal. The computer storage medium can also be, or be included in, one or more separate physical components or media (e.g., multiple CDs, disks, or other storage devices).
The operations described in this specification can be implemented as operations performed by a data processing apparatus on data stored on one or more computer-readable storage devices or received from other sources.
The term “data processing apparatus” encompasses all kinds of apparatus, devices, and machines for processing data, including by way of example a programmable processor, a computer, a system on a chip, or multiple ones, or combinations, of the foregoing The apparatus can include special purpose logic circuitry, e.g., an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit). The apparatus can also include, in addition to hardware, code that creates an execution environment for the computer program in question, e.g., code that constitutes processor firmware, a protocol stack, a database management system, an operating system, a cross-platform runtime environment, a virtual machine, or a combination of one or more of them. The apparatus and execution environment can realize various different computing model infrastructures, such as web services, distributed computing and grid computing infrastructures.
A computer program (also known as a program, software, software application, script, or code) can be written in any form of programming language, including compiled or interpreted languages, declarative or procedural languages, and it can be deployed in any form, including as a stand-alone program or as a module, component, subroutine, object, or other unit suitable for use in a computing environment. A computer program may, but need not, correspond to a file in a file system. A program can be stored in a portion of a file that holds other programs or data (e.g., one or more scripts stored in a markup language document), in a single file dedicated to the program in question, or in multiple coordinated files (e.g., files that store one or more modules, sub-programs, or portions of code). A computer program can be deployed to be executed on one computer or on multiple computers that are located at one site or distributed across multiple sites and interconnected by a communication network.
The processes and logic flows described in this specification can be performed by one or more programmable processors executing one or more computer programs to perform actions by operating on input data and generating output. The processes and logic flows can also be performed by, and apparatus can also be implemented as, special purpose logic circuitry, e.g., an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit).
Processors suitable for the execution of a computer program include, by way of example, both general and special purpose microprocessors, and any one or more processors of any kind of digital computer. Generally, a processor will receive instructions and data from a read-only memory or a random access memory or both. The essential elements of a computer are a processor for performing actions in accordance with instructions and one or more memory devices for storing instructions and data. Generally, a computer will also include, or be operatively coupled to receive data from or transfer data to, or both, one or more mass storage devices for storing data, e.g., magnetic, magneto-optical disks, or optical disks. However, a computer need not have such devices. Moreover, a computer can be embedded in another device, e.g., a mobile telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile audio or video player, a game console, a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, or a portable storage device (e.g., a universal serial bus (USB) flash drive), to name just a few. Devices suitable for storing computer program instructions and data include all forms of non-volatile memory, media and memory devices, including by way of example semiconductor memory devices, e.g., EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, e.g., internal hard disks or removable disks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks. The processor and the memory can be supplemented by, or incorporated in, special purpose logic circuitry.
To provide for interaction with a user, embodiments of the subject matter described in this specification can be implemented on a computer having a display device, e.g., a CRT (cathode ray tube) or LCD (liquid crystal display) monitor, for displaying information to the user and a keyboard and a pointing device, e.g., a mouse or a trackball, by which the user can provide input to the computer. Other kinds of devices can be used to provide for interaction with a user as well; for example, feedback provided to the user can be any form of sensory feedback, e.g., visual feedback, auditory feedback, or tactile feedback; and input from the user can be received in any form, including acoustic, speech, or tactile input. In addition, a computer can interact with a user by sending documents to and receiving documents from a device that is used by the user; for example, by sending web pages to a web browser on a user's client device in response to requests received from the web browser.
Embodiments of the subject matter described in this specification can be implemented in a computing system that includes a back-end component, e.g., as a data server, or that includes a middleware component, e.g., an application server, or that includes a front-end component, e.g., a client computer having a graphical user interface or a Web browser through which a user can interact with an implementation of the subject matter described in this specification, or any combination of one or more such back-end, middleware, or front-end components. The components of the system can be interconnected by any form or medium of digital data communication, e.g., a communication network. Examples of communication networks include a local area network (“LAN”) and a wide area network (“WAN”), an inter-network (e.g., the Internet), and peer-to-peer networks (e.g., ad hoc peer-to-peer networks).
The computing system can include clients and servers. A client and server are generally remote from each other and typically interact through a communication network. The relationship of client and server arises by virtue of computer programs running on the respective computers and having a client-server relationship to each other. In some embodiments, a server transmits data (e.g., an HTML page) to a client device (e.g., for purposes of displaying data to and receiving user input from a user interacting with the client device). Data generated at the client device (e.g., a result of the user interaction) can be received from the client device at the server.
While this specification contains many specific implementation details, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of any inventions or of what may be claimed, but rather as descriptions of features specific to particular embodiments of particular inventions. Certain features that are described in this specification in the context of separate embodiments can also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment can also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable subcombination. Moreover, although features may be described above as acting in certain combinations and even initially claimed as such, one or more features from a claimed combination can in some cases be excised from the combination, and the claimed combination may be directed to a subcombination or variation of a subcombination.
Similarly, while operations are depicted in the drawings in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Moreover, the separation of various system components in the embodiments described above should not be understood as requiring such separation in all embodiments, and it should be understood that the described program components and systems can generally be integrated together in a single software product or packaged into multiple software products.
Thus, particular embodiments of the subject matter have been described. Other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims. In some cases, the actions recited in the claims can be performed in a different order and still achieve desirable results. In addition, the processes depicted in the accompanying figures do not necessarily require the particular order shown, or sequential order, to achieve desirable results. In certain implementations, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous.
