Eiji Kawai

BitVisor: a thin hypervisor for enforcing i/o device security

Virtual machine monitors (VMMs), including hypervisors, are a popular platform for implementing various security functionalities. However, traditional VMMs require numerous components for providing virtual hardware devices and for sharing and protecting system resources among virtual machines (VMs), enlarging the code size of and reducing the reliability of the VMMs. This paper introduces a hypervisor architecture, called parapass-through, designed to minimize the code size of hypervisors by allowing most of the I/O access from the guest operating system (OS) to pass-through the hypervisor, while the minimum access necessary to implement security functionalities is completely mediated by the hypervisor. This architecture uses device drivers of the guest OS to handle devices, thereby reducing the size of components in the hypervisor to provide virtual devices. This architecture also allows to run only single VM on it, eliminating the components for sharing and protecting system resources among VMs. We implemented a hypervisor called BitVisor and a parapass-through driver for enforcing storage encryption of ATA devices based on the parapass-through architecture. The experimental result reveals that the hypervisor and ATA driver require approximately 20 kilo lines of code (KLOC) and 1.4 KLOC respectively.

Introducing Role-Based Access Control to a Secure Virtual Machine Monitor: Security Policy Enforcement Mechanism for Distributed Computers

In recent years, as the data processed by governmental or commercial organizations increases, cases involving information leak have risen. It is difficult to control information on many distributed end-point computers using conventional security mechanisms. Therefore, we have been proposed a novel secure VMM (Virtual Machine Monitor) architecture which is used as a foundation of security policy enforcement on distributed computers. This paper especially introduces Role-based Access Control (RBAC) to the ID management framework in a secure VMM system. Our proposal will reduce costs for distributed policies updates. Proposed RBAC mechanism employs attribute certificates (ACs) to handle userpsilas roles. This paper shows design and prototype implementation based on PKI-based ID card and proven open source VMM software, QEMU.

A Two-Step Execution Mechanism for Thin Secure Hypervisors

Virtual Machine Monitors (VMMs), also called hypervisors, can be used to construct a trusted computing base (TCB) enhancing the security of existing operating systems. The complexity of a VMM-based TCB causes the high risk of security vulnerabilities. Therefore, this paper proposes a two-step execution mechanism to reduce the complexity of a VMM-based TCB. We propose a method to separate a conventional VMM-based TCB into the following two parts: (1) A thin hypervisor with security services and (2) A special guest OS for security preprocessing. A special guest OS performing security tasks can be executed in advance. After shutting down the special guest OS, a hypervisor obtains preprocessing security data and next boots a target guest OS to be protected. Thus, the proposed two-step execution mechanism can reduce run-time codes of a hypervisor. This paper shows a design, a prototype implementation and measurement results of lines of code using BitVisor, a VMM-based TCB we have developed.

Extracting client-side streaming QoS information from server logs

Effective management of the quality of multimedia streaming service is a challenging issue. Traditionally, many server operators rely on their intuition for the service quality management because the quantitative semantics of the server log data has not been explored. In this paper, we propose a new approach to quantitative estimation of the client-side service quality based on the server log data. The experimental results show fundamental guidelines for effective service quality management.

T-PIM: Trusted Password Input Method against Data Stealing Malware

Internet-based financial services like online shopping and online banking have become popular in the past several years. However, most end-users environments constructed on existing operating systems always face a threat of malware like keylogger and screenlogger. Especially, conventional anti-virus technology cannot prevent a new type of hypervisor-based stealth viruses yet. This paper proposes a novel password protection mechanism called T-PIM (Trusted Password Input Method). Proposed T-PIM mechanism provides a secure password input method to users. Our proposal employs a hypervisor to isolate a trusted domain. This paper shows a design, a prototype implementation, and results of a performance measurement. We discuss security and usability of proposed T-PIM mechanism, preventable and unpreventable attacks, and comparison with conventional measures against data stealing malware.

PRAGMA-ENT: An International SDN testbed for cyberinfrastructure in the Pacific Rim: PRAGMA-ENT: An International SDN testbed for cyberinfrastructure in the Pacific Rim

The Pacific Rim Application and Grid Middleware Assembly (PRAGMA) is an international community of researchers that actively collaborate to address problems and challenges of common interest in eScience. The PRAGMA Experimental Network Testbed (PRAGMA‐ENT) was established with the goal of constructing an international software‐defined network (SDN) testbed to offer the necessary networking support to the PRAGMA cyberinfrastructure. PRAGMA‐ENT is isolated, and PRAGMA researchers have complete freedom to access network resources to develop, experiment, and evaluate new ideas without the concerns of interfering with production networks.

Concept and Design of SDN-Enhanced MPI Framework

In general, modern high-performance computing systems are built as cluster systems. We have been investigating the feasibility of optimizing MPI communications by integrating the dynamic network control realized by SDN. In this paper, we present a concept of a generic SDN enhanced MPI framework, an application-aware network control mechanism specifically for MPI applications.

A study on designing OpenFlow controller RISE 3.0

The deployment of wide-area OpenFlow networks is essential for the global research community. Since 2011, we started to operat our wide-area OpenFlow networks as a RISE OpenFlow testbed for researchers and developpers. Through our operation, we got some issues. Especially, we focused on the issue caused by topology between sites. By this issue, we cannot assign users OpenFlow Switches freely. Also, it may give some constraints to users experiments. To solve this issue, we design and discuss topology management system called “RISE3.0” using OpenFlow.

A Flexible Replication Mechanism with Extended Database Connection Layers

It is vital to achieve a disaster recovery system that allows a backup site to take over a primary sites IT services while the primary site is down. We propose a flexible replication mechanism based on service requirements such as system performance, recovery time objective (RTO), and recovery point objective (RPO). For high flexibility, the mechanism controls the replication schedule by monitoring the applications database accesses in the database connection library and matching the accesses with previously registered access patterns. In our experiments, we confirmed that the proposed mechanism outperforms other existing mechanisms, especially in situations with network delays and packet losses

Streaming Mobile Multimedia Optimization for Video-Conferencing Scenarios

Video conferencing in mobile environments involves real time streaming information among mobile nodes connected within a wireless environment. This kind of framework is difficult to deal with, because of its concrete requirements. In this paper, we propose an architecture based on adaptive applications that will change their behavior depending on the network information gathered by the operating system. We will demonstrate that we can provide a better QoS for video conferencing scenarios with minimum costs while maintaining a high portability.